University of Hull

Womens employment in garment factories

in Bangladesh: emancipation or exploitation?

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements

for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
in Gender Studies, Department of Social Sciences.

Submitted By:
M. Arifur Rahman
MA (Gender and International Development)
University of Warwick

Date of Submission:
October 2010
 Abstract

Womens participation in export-oriented industries has been one of the most

dominant features in many developing countries since the 1970s. Employment in waged
jobs has often been viewed as a means of womens integration into development
processes. Research showed that development efforts in Third World countries
negatively affected women and displaced them from their productive activities. As such,
there was an increasing demand from liberal feminists and women development
practitioners to integrate women into development processes through employment
generation. They stressed the need for womens access to resources as the way to
emancipate them from subordination. Although generation of employment through the
establishment of export-oriented industries has given women access to economic
resources, their participation in waged labour has given rise to a persistent debate in
literature in relation to the issue of their emancipation/exploitation. This ethnographic
research examines the implications of waged employment for women participating in
export-oriented garment factories in Bangladesh.

Within a feminist and broader social science research methodology, this study
employs both qualitative and quantitative research approaches and analyses the
experiences of women as factory workers, as members of the household and as
members of society actively involved in day-to-day interactions with other societal
members. The findings of this study reveal that the implications of waged employment
for Bangladeshi women are complex and contradictory. Analysis of womens
perceptions as factory workers shows that they are exploited on the factory floor in
different ways and experience new forms of patriarchal domination beyond their family.
Exploration of their perceptions as household members shows that earnings improve
their position within the family. Although they often do not control their wages and
frequently bear the double burden of productive and reproductive activities, they enjoy
autonomy and freedom from familial patriarchal domination to a certain degree. In
addition, womens participation in the labour market and their constant presence in the
male dominated spaces are incessantly contesting the traditional notions of gender
practices and meanings in Bangladeshi society. This situation also influences women to
challenge male authority to an extent. Even though the challenges are not widespread,
these may create new possibilities for women in society.

i
 Acknowledgements

A PhD degree is often an individual academic pursuit. Nevertheless, this effort

would not be possible without the assistance and support of many accomplished players,
who each played an essential but different role. I wish to acknowledge and say thanks to
all of them.

First of all I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to the almighty Allah
who gave me the strength and endurance to bear many tough situations, especially
during the second half of 2007. Abir, my first son was born on the 20th of July 2007,
back home in Bangladesh, while I was pursuing my study here in the UK. He was born
ill and had wrong medication for nearly four months. Thereafter doctors diagnosed that
he had pericardial tumour and required an open heart surgery. I went back home and
with advice from doctors took him to India, where he had a more than six hour long
surgery. Now he is quite alright by the grace of the almighty. My supervisor Dr.
Suzanne Clisby gave me instant mental support at that moment and extended maximum
cooperation all along. I thank Dr. Suzanne Clisby from the core of my heart.

Dr. Suzanne Clisby inspired, supported and encouraged me all the time. Her
intellectual and thoughtful comments, critiques and supervision were invaluable. My
knowledge was enriched by discussions with Dr. Suzanne Clisby, who taught me to
thoroughly think the different dimensions of my research. Thank you very much Dr.
Suzanne Clisby. I thank Dr. Majella M. Kilkey and Dr. Vassos Argyrou for their
comments and suggestions on the initial chapters of the thesis. I also thank Dr. Mark
Johnson for his enduring support and cooperation.

Garment factory workers, women in particular and family elders of a few female
workers willingly talked to me and gave me their time. Without their cooperation and
dedication, this study would not have been possible. I would like to thank all of them
for making my effort successful in doing this ethnographic research.

I thank all the staff of Department of Social Sciences and Graduate School for
their support and cooperation. Thanks also due to all concerned with Strengthening of
Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre (SBPATC) Project for their constant

ii
assistance. I thank government of Bangladesh for giving me the scholarship that enabled
me to pursue this work.

I am indebted to Mr. Mosharaf Hossain, former member directing staff (MDS) of

Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre, who against many impediments
nominated me for a scholarship to undertake an MA degree, which gave me the
perspective to think of a PhD programme. I thank Mr. Mosharaf Hossain and my friends
and colleagues who extended their support in various ways.

And finally, I would like to thank all my lovely family members for their sacrifice
and support through the days. They were always concerned with my wellbeing here in
the UK. They struggled a lot, especially with Abir, because of those painful days of his
life. My father Mr. Md. Azizur Rahman, my mother Mrs. Mahfuza Khatun, my elder
brother Mr. Mohiuddin Faruk and my wife Jesmin Akter always inspired me. I thank
them all for being so generous to me.

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 Table of Contents

Abstract .............................................................................................................................. i
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... ii
List of figures and tables ................................................................................................. vii
Chapter I: Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1
Background of the study ............................................................................................... 2
Aims of the study .......................................................................................................... 5
Rationale of the study.................................................................................................... 6
Objectives of the study .................................................................................................. 7
Presentation and outline of the thesis ............................................................................ 8
Chapter II: Development discourse: from women in to gender and over the course
of the 20th century ........................................................................................................... 10
Introduction ................................................................................................................. 10
Post World War II reconstruction ............................................................................... 11
Development in the Third World ................................................................................ 14
Development and dependency theory ......................................................................... 19
Feminist critiques of development .............................................................................. 20
Liberal feminism and women in development (WID) ................................................ 21
From women in to gender and perspective ............................................................ 26
The woman issues in the policy domain................................................................... 32
Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 38
Chapter III: Globalisation and Bangladesh: implications for women ............................. 42
Introduction ................................................................................................................. 42
Development and globalisation ................................................................................... 43
Emergence of world market factories ......................................................................... 45
Feminisation of labour and labour force feminisation ................................................ 49
Women in Bangladesh: relations of gender and power .............................................. 52
Gender & development policy initiatives in Bangladesh ............................................ 53
The implications of waged employment for women................................................... 64
Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 68
Chapter IV: Interaction and interpretation: the research process .................................... 71
Introduction ................................................................................................................. 71
Feminist Research Methodology ................................................................................ 72
Can men research women?.......................................................................................... 73
Power and ethical issues.............................................................................................. 76

iv
 Selection of the setting ................................................................................................ 78
Selection of research participants................................................................................ 79
Research process ......................................................................................................... 82
Data analysis ............................................................................................................... 94
Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 95
Chapter V: Garment workers of Savar: a socioeconomic profile ................................... 98
Introduction ................................................................................................................. 98
Workers Age .............................................................................................................. 99
Education................................................................................................................... 101
Marital status ............................................................................................................. 104
Residential status....................................................................................................... 107
Living arrangement in urban areas ............................................................................ 111
Reasons for taking the job ......................................................................................... 114
Access and recruitment strategies ............................................................................. 119
Working conditions ................................................................................................... 121
Working hours ........................................................................................................... 121
Wage benefits ............................................................................................................ 122
Wage related benefits ................................................................................................ 123
Non-wage benefits .................................................................................................... 124
Physical conditions and safety measures .................................................................. 126
Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 127
Chapter VI: The new economic actors: perceptions and experiences of employment . 129
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 129
Women and the formal sector of employment .......................................................... 130
Garment factory work environment .......................................................................... 135
Factory work and the construction of skill ................................................................ 140
Turnover and promotional prospects in garment factories ....................................... 144
Sexual division of labour on the factory floors ......................................................... 147
Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 152
Chapter VII: Workers lived experiences in public and private spheres ...................... 155
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 155
Power and respect within the factory ........................................................................ 156
Violence and harassment in and out of the workplace .............................................. 158
Health and wellbeing at work ................................................................................... 162
Access to resources and abuse of power at work ...................................................... 165
Power and resource allocation in the household ....................................................... 168
Gender roles and reproductive tasks in the household .............................................. 173

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 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 178
Chapter VIII: Workers in societal context: perceptions of positionalities .................... 181
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 181
Womens perceptions of their position in the family ................................................ 182
Womens perceptions of their own image ................................................................ 188
Womens perceptions of movement.......................................................................... 192
Womens perceptions of peoples attitudes towards them ........................................ 195
Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 198
Chapter IX: Conclusion: the final thoughts .................................................................. 201
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 201
Women and employment in garment factories ......................................................... 202
Methodology and significance of research ............................................................... 204
Implications of factory employment for Bangladeshi women .................................. 204
Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 211
Policy recommendations ........................................................................................... 213
References: .................................................................................................................... 217

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 List of figures and tables

Figure 4.1: Researcher at work in a garment factory......................................................85

Figure 4.2: A woman is fixing machinery problems to keep production going..............86
Figure 4.3: Visiting a female participant in her home for in-depth discussions..89
Figure 4.4: A semi-structured interview with the husband of a factory worker..............92
Figure 4.5: A structured interview with a male factory worker......................93
Figure 5.1: Trend of female participation in labour market over the years.....................99
Figure 5.2: Age-gender distribution of garment workers.............................................100
Figure 5.3: Changes in workers age structure over the years.......................................101
Figure 5.4: Age composition of female garment workers during first job....................101
Figure 5.5: Educational status of garment workers by gender.....................................103
Figure 5.6: Marital status of garment workers by gender............................................104
Figure 5.7: Age-marriage structure of female garment workers..................................105
Figure 5.8: Place of origin of garment workers by gender...........................................107
Figure 5.9: Reasons for migration of garment workers by gender...............................108
Figure 5.10: Urban living arrangements of garment workers by gender.....................112
Figure 5.11: Reasons of taking paid employment.........................................................115
Table 4.1: Summary of research process.........................................................................81
Table 4.2: Research processes at a glance.......................................................................97

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 Chapter I: Introduction

Introduction

The availability of waged employment for women in the Third World1, since the
1970s, has been one of the most overriding features of postcolonial global economic
restructuring (Ward, 1990:2). Dominant development discourses during that time
encouraged developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America to pursue export-
oriented industrialisation policy in their quest for development (Sinha, 1995:558;
Tamborini, 2007:24). Within these countries, economic restructuring was largely based
on the establishment of industries for export of such commodities as textiles, garments,
electronics, toys, footwear and pharmaceuticals to the world market. These industries
have overwhelmingly employed women in developing countries where export
manufacturing has been a key sector of the economy (Sassen-Koob, 1984:1146).
Although men have typically had better access to formal sector employment, women
constituted the majority of the industrial workforce in developing countries, since they
were perceived to be biologically and emotionally better suited for repetitive, low-
skilled and low-paid jobs in these industries (Wright, 1997:84). During the early 1980s,
the Bangladeshi government adopted an export-oriented industrialisation policy and
since then garment factories have emerged as a major source of employment for
Bangladeshi women (Khan, 2005:223-224). The export sector, especially export-
oriented garment manufacturing industries, developed very quickly in Bangladesh and
almost overnight brought women into highly visible forms of employment, linking them
to the global economy. Prior to the development of the garment sector, Bangladeshi
women were almost invisible in the waged labour market in the formal sector because
of very limited employment opportunities (Feldman, 2001:1098; Kabeer, 2004:14).

Global market-oriented manufacturing industries have generated huge

employment opportunities, particularly for women, and availability of jobs has been the
most immediate benefit for them. Nevertheless, the enormous increase in womens

1
This term has been designated to describe those states, which during the Cold War remained non-
aligned with either the capitalist bloc led by the USA or with the communist bloc led by the then USSR.
Third World principally consisted of the former colonies of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania. In
the course of time such other terms as developing countries, LDCs, the South etc. have been used to
denote these countries (McGrew, 2000:353). These terms have been used in this thesis interchangeably.

1
participation in waged labour has generated intense debate in discourse, around the
issue of womens emancipation/exploitation through factory work (Heyzer & Kean,
1988:3). This research attempted to examine this long established theoretical debate and
to explore the effects of manufacturing jobs on women, working in export-oriented
garment factories in Bangladesh. This introductory chapter provides an overview of this
ethnographic study of the embodied experiences of female factory workers both as
women and as workers. In the subsequent sections of this chapter I discuss the
background and aims of the study, the rationale and objectives of the research as well as
an outline of the presentation of the thesis.

Background of the study

This thesis is concerned with the experiences of female factory workers,

particularly the experiences of women simultaneously as homemakers and as factory
workers. The research essentially involves human relations, experiences of interpersonal
relationships between women and men and the related contexts that influence these
relations. I was particularly interested in exploring the interpersonal relationships
between women and men within the perspectives of family, factory and society. I
employed feminist and social science insights into this ethnographic research, with a
view to creating a space to reproduce and reflect the multiple views of the participants
of this study. My initial interest in exploring the lived experiences of women working in
export-oriented factories grew while I was pursuing my postgraduate study. I studied
other research findings focusing on the implications of waged employment for women
and these influenced me to study the experiences of Bangladeshi women engaged in
export-oriented garment factories.

The mobilisation of women into export-oriented industries was a means of

integrating them into development processes (Lim, 1985, cited in Ward, 1990:2).
Development until the 1970s fundamentally remained a gender-blind paradigm and
liberal development theorists gave very little attention to womens experiences. They
ignored womens traditional productive roles in the subsistence economy and tended to
assume that production tasks were entirely performed by men (Parpart, 1993:447). A
more accurate assessment would recognise that women have indeed been part of the
development model from its inception; they have been presumed present, their labour

2
marginalised and taken for granted (Wright, 1997:77). Liberal economists viewed
development as a process, in which economic growth and womens incorporation would
go hand in hand (Cagatay & Ozler, 1995:1884). Boserup (1970) challenged this view,
and developed the marginalisation thesis, which maintained that the process of
economic development had given men privileged access to new technologies and
education and thus created productivity difference between men and women. Therefore,
women became disadvantaged in the labour market, which resulted in their dependence
on men. Given this situation, Boserup suggested womens integration into development
through gainful employment. The integration thesis held that employment and access
to resources would lessen womens dependence on men and would thus emancipate
them from their subordinate position within society (Tiano, 1986: 158).

Increasing demand and lobbying from feminist activists brought about changes in
dominant development discourses and planners emphasised womens integration into
development processes, through creating employment opportunities for them (Tinker,
1990:29). Since the 1970s, the development paradigm shifted from an import
substitution industrialisation policy to export-oriented industrialisation approach, which
aimed at producing goods for the global market. Planners identified women as the
prospective workforce for the export industry, since they viewed them as an
underutilised human resource (Safa, 1995:33).

Womens increasing participation in export factories in developing countries has

inspired new areas of research and theoretical discourse, especially in terms of the
implications of employment for them. Since the mid 1970s, increasing numbers of
theoretical and research developments have generated innovative scholarships within
the women in development (WID) paradigm explaining the impacts of waged
employment on women, working in export-oriented industries in developing countries
(Lim, 1990:101). Lim claimed that the reason for the widespread interest in researching
the impacts of factory work on women was the historical coincidence of a growing
interest in womens changing roles worldwide with the expansion of export
manufacturing in the Third World.

A number of studies focusing on the profile of female factory workers, working

conditions inside factories, wages and occupational and health hazards articulated that

3
womens integration through employment in export-oriented industries has been more
exploitative for them (Elson & Pearson, 1981a, 1981b, 1997; Safa, 1981; Nash &
Fernandez-kelly, 1983; Bandrage, 1984; Young, 1984; Greenhalgh, 1985; Wolf, 1990b).
Proponents of the exploitation thesis claimed that Third World women were already
integrated into development and their further integration in industrial production had
been more harmful than beneficial. This view maintains that women provide cheap and
easily expandable labour because discriminatory hiring practices, sex-segregated
labour market[s], and inadequate preparation weaken their position within the labour
market. Also, the typically intense competition for scarce jobs keeps wages low and
workers docile (Tiano, 1986:159). Some other studies considered the availability of
employment opportunities for women in both the formal and informal sector and
reported that export factory work was more emancipating for women, and that they
benefitted mostly from their employment in export-oriented industries (Lim, 1983, 1990,
1997; Krugman, 1997; Sargent & Matthews, 1997; Feenstra & Hanson, 1997, Meyer
2006). According to this view, industrialisation enriches womens opportunities while
helping them acquire the skills and aspirations to take full advantage of their options. In
this way, women who are traditionally victims of repressive patriarchal norms become
autonomous contributors to society and its development efforts (Tiano, op cit.). Thus,
previous research findings initiated a heated debate in theoretical discourse with regard
to the implications of womens employment in industrial manufacture. Both groups of
researchers conducted their study of employment impacts on women from different
perspectives. I believe that, as Beek (2001:1565) suggests, the grounds of research
influence researchers interests, experiences, values and views, while researchers views
influence research findings. I believe that in order to create a comprehensive picture of
the implications of employment for women, we need to analyse their situation in all
settings where they continuously interact and experience their lives. Therefore, in this
research, I intended to examine my theoretical understanding on the topic and to explore
the realities of womens lives from the perspectives of the familial, employment and
societal contexts, within which they constantly interact with other stakeholders. I
believed that analysing their lived experiences from all these three settings would
produce a holistic picture of their lives.

My interest in the subject was stimulated by my perceptions of the experiences of

one of my sisters who is an Economics graduate, and who has been working in an

4
export-oriented garment factory as a senior executive for almost a decade. During the
first couple of years of her employment she was single and lived with us in our family
home. Her usual working hours were from 7:30am until 4:30pm but sometimes she had
to stay in her office until 8:00pm because of the obligation for overtime work. Her
remaining outside of the home during the evening was a source of conflict within our
family, since Bangladeshi society does not readily accept such behaviour from
unmarried women in particular. This situation bothered my father a great deal and at
one stage he began to insist she leave her job. Thus, it was perceived in my family that
her job created an unhealthy environment at home, especially because of overtime work.
Verbal abuse was a regular experience for her on the days she was late in the evening.
Nevertheless, she worked at least six days a week and overtime work was almost a
routine matter. She would not have to do any domestic tasks in our family and she had
full control over her earnings. Despite this fact, I perceived that she did not have a very
good experience, while she was living with us. She is now married and living with her
husband and therefore, in addition to her job now she also has to manage her family and
cook every day, since there is no one to assist her. My perceptions of her struggle and
the persistent debates on the subject concurrently influenced my research interest and
wish to explore the experiences of Bangladeshi female garment factory workers.

Aims of the study

Womens large-scale participation in waged employment has generated intense

debate over employment effects on their status. Does employment increase womens
exploitation in society? Or does it emancipate them from their exploitative situation?
This ethnographic study sought to answer these broad research questions. In doing so,
the study focused on exploring their experiences as workers in garment factories, as
members of households and as members of Bangladeshi society. More specifically, in
this research I wished to-

explore the perceptions of female factory workers about export-oriented

garment factory employment;
examine the experiences of female factory workers and their day-to-day
interactions with others inside factories;

5
 explore the experiences of women workers with regard to their condition
and position within their households;
investigate the perceptions of female factory workers in relation to their
position within the wider societal context

To truly grasp the impact of waged employment on women working in export-

oriented garment factories, I examined womens perceptions about interpersonal
relationships between women and men in all three settings and explored the views of
others around them. I analysed their lived experiences in this study and tried to locate
myself in the research process by employing conscious subjectivity in place of the
value-free-objectivity of traditional research approaches (Klein, 1983:94).

Rationale of the study

In 1983 there were only 134 garment manufacturing units which employed 0.04
million workers and exported goods worth US$ 32m which contributed 4% to total
export earnings of the country. In 2008 the number of garment factories stood at 4740,
in which more than 2.5 million workers were employed, 85% of whom were women
and the value of exports was US$ 10,700m accounting for 76% of total export earnings
(Human Development Resource Centre, 2008; Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and
Exporters Association, 2009). Beyond being the largest export earner and employer of
Bangladeshi women in particular, this sector has a number of positive impacts on the
wider society. It has increased such economic activities as banking, insurance, foreign
exchange, hotels and tourism. It has enhanced the development of the manufacturing of
knitting and woven fabrics and accessories of garment products as backward as well as
forward linkages and the growth of transportation and utility services (Hoque,
Myrayama & Rahman, 1995:111).

The export-oriented garment sector has thus made a significant contribution to the
socioeconomic development of Bangladesh. Its importance and influence made it an
interesting context for research. In Bangladesh, intensive studies concerning export-
oriented industries and womens employment in the waged labour market, although
relatively few in number, were conducted during the 1990s onwards (Hossain, Jahan &
Sobhan, 1988, 1990; Feldman, 1992; Hoque, Murayama & Rahman, 1995; Kibria, 1995,

6
1998; Zohir & Paul-Majumder, 1996; Kabeer, 1997; Paul-Majumder & Begum, 1997;
Absar, 2001, 2003; Dannecker, 2002; Paul-Majumder & Begum, 2006; Zohir, 2007,
Siddiqi, 2000, 2009). These studies concentrated on the gendered aspects of export-
oriented development of garment manufacturing from a wide variety of dimensions,
including migration, the socio-economic impacts, health conditions of garment workers,
occupational mobility, coping with factory life, and factory wages. These research
literatures mostly concentrated on the significant increase of womens employment in
the formal sector of the economy. Researchers attempted to explore the implications of
waged employment for women and their efforts located their studies within the better
off or worse off dichotomy. Yet, very few of these studies give us an idea about the
extent of patriarchal relations that might persist on the factory floor. In addition, hardly
any comprehensive research has been done that studied female factory workers
concurrently as women, as garment factory workers and as members of society, which I
think is very important in order to truly grasp the topic in question. As such, in this
study I intended to cover all these aspects of womens lives to examine the impacts of
garment factory work on them. Besides, research done previously dates back at least a
decade. From this perspective, this research was an attempt to explore the gendered
experiences of female factory workers within a time difference of ten years.

Objectives of the study

The purpose of this study was to determine the implications of waged

employment for women. Since the lived experiences of women are constituted through
their continuous interactions in different settings with other members of society, this
research intended to explore the perceptions of both female factory workers and others
involved with them. The objectives that I formulated for this research with a view to
analysing the impacts of factory work on women were to-

study the socio-economic profile of women and men working in export-

oriented garment factories;
explore the working conditions and structures inside garment factories;
investigate the position and condition of female factory workers inside
factories and within the family;

7
 examine the perceptions of male workers and male and female family
elders about women working in garment factories;
explore the perceptions of female factory workers about their self images;
examine factory workers perceptions of societal views towards them.

I considered both men and women as research participants, in addition to female

factory workers, since I perceived that womens lived experiences and their perceptions
are constantly influenced and constructed through the process of interaction with other
members of society within different settings.

Presentation and outline of the thesis

The textual presentation of this thesis has been done in the first person, which
articulates attention to my authorship. By writing in the first person I also acknowledge
my position as a researcher who has been entangled within the research process. This
thesis is organised in nine chapters. Following this introductory frame of reference, the
second chapter explores different approaches to Third World development, and the
critiques of these approaches which Western policy makers prescribed with a view to
modernising developing countries. This chapter also elaborates the feminist
development standpoint and the response of international development institutions with
regard to womens relationship to dominant development processes.

The third chapter of the thesis discusses the gendered impacts of globalisation. I
discuss the policy initiatives taken in Bangladesh in relation to womens development. I
also discuss analyses of womens participation in paid employment and detail the
debates that emerged in feminist discourse surrounding employment implications for
women.

In chapter four I discuss the methodological approaches that I employed in this

research. I discuss feminist research methodology and analyse whether men can
research women. Further, this chapter provides a description of the setting, research
sample and methods of data analysis. I also explain my own reflections on the research
process and present my research procedures in a tabular form.

8
 Chapter five focuses on the socioeconomic profile of both the female and male
factory workers whom I interviewed for this study. In this chapter I discuss the factors
that influenced them to take garment factory jobs. I also discuss factory working
conditions in terms of labour welfare and the physical conditions of garment factories.

I employed a thematic approach in analysing empirical data which are examined

in chapters six to eight. In chapter six I analyse womens perceptions of garment factory
employment, the factory working environment, the construction of skill and turnover
and promotional prospects for women in the factory work structure.

In chapter seven I discuss womens positions and conditions inside factories as

well as within the family. In this chapter I analyse respect and reciprocity, violence and
harassment, occupational and health hazards, and access to wages and related benefits
for women on the factory floor. I also examine womens control over resources and
gender roles and relations in the family.

In chapter eight I analyse womens position within the family and broader societal
context. I explore womens experience within the family and their perceptions of their
own image. I also analyse womens perceptions with regard to their position in society
and peoples attitudes towards them.

Chapter nine is the concluding chapter of this thesis, in which I recapitulate the
findings that came from my data analysis. Womens employment in Bangladesh has put
society into a transitional stage and I conclude the chapter with some aspirations that
may arise because of the changing socioeconomic structures of the country.

9
 Chapter II: Development discourse: from women in to
gender and over the course of the 20th century

Introduction

Since the end of the Second World War, development has become an increasingly
important part of international relations and global politics. Having been freed from
colonial domination, the developing countries started their journey through post-war
history setting development as the primary target in their quest for nation-building,
economic growth and equity. In the 1950s and 1960s, economists largely understood
development as rapid economic growth measured through macro-economic indicators
such as GNP (Young 1993:13). Their thinking and action on development were
dominated by the modernisation approach and they identified lack of capital as the main
obstacle to change and, therefore, argued for ample supplies of capital in these countries
to finance infrastructure, industrialisation and the overall modernisation of society
(Escobar, 1995:86). Initially the United States financed post-war reconstruction through
the Marshall Plan; during the 1950s private corporations played the key role while the
United States provided most of the official development assistance to developing
nations in the 1960s; in the 1970s private banks became the major source of capital for
these countries (Waylen, 1996:31).

Nevertheless, development interventions in the Third World did not always follow
the pattern policy makers anticipated. An extensive body of literature showed that
development programmes not only failed to improve the living conditions prevalent in
the developing countries but in many cases had also adverse effects on the lives of the
people and especially on women. The inadequacy to deliver benefits put development
policy initiatives under criticism from many corners. Dependency theorists critiqued the
inadequacies of the development paradigm focusing on the nature of the relationship
between the developed and developing nations and tried to explain the reasons for
continued underdevelopment. Feminist scholars also generated a vast literature on
women and development. This chapter is mainly organised around concepts of
development and feminists perspectives on it. It begins with a discussion on post-
World War-II reconstruction and then discusses development policy initiatives that were
employed in the Third World, followed by the dependency paradigm of development
that critiqued the modernisation approach. The bulk of the chapter then discusses

10
feminist approaches to development. The final section of the chapter concentrates on
development policies of international institutions with regard to their responses to the
call from feminist groups in terms of womens emancipation.

Post World War II reconstruction

The European colonial empires were dismantled in the 20 years after the Second
World War. Decolonisation occurred around the world due to anti-colonial movements
pursued by the people of the colonies and supported by both the then USSR and the
USA (Bernstein, 2000:252). Post-war decolonisation resulted in the emergence of a
good number of independent countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
The term Third World is one of several that has long been used to describe these
newly independent countries which share relatively low per-capita incomes, high rates
of illiteracy, limited development industry, distorted economy, poor or non-existent
systems of service infrastructure, low degrees of social mobility, low levels of education
and unstable political structures. The problems these countries were facing during the
postcolonial era included poverty, ill health, famine, population growth, drought,
indebtedness and political instability. However, despite an extraordinary diversity of
characteristics and problems among developing countries the Western world portrayed
them as simply one vast morass of poverty, exploitation and degradation (Hulme &
Turner, 1990:2). Development became a common cry for the solution of Third World
problems in both rich and poor countries. After the end of the Second World War
development became an important concept and the second half of the twentieth century
has been termed the epoch of development, which was rooted in a speech by President
Harry S. Truman, in which he announced his concept of a fair deal for the entire world.
Taking office as President of the United States, Truman in his inaugural address
declared:

More than half the people of the world are living in conditions approaching
misery. Their food is inadequate, they are victims of disease. Their economic
life is primitive and stagnant. Their poverty is a handicap and a threat both
to them and to more prosperous areas. What we envisage is a program of
development based on the concepts of democratic fair dealing. Greater
production is the key to prosperity and peace. And the key to greater

11
 production is a wider and more vigorous application of modern scientific
and technical knowledge (Truman, 1949, cited in Escobar, 1995:3).

The will by President Truman to realise a programme of development to address

poverty in these countries shifted the attention of development policy makers. He
stressed the need for replacing the old imperialism of exploitation for foreign profit with
a democratic fair dealing programme to combat poverty and to attain greater social
equality. His programme involved the application of modern technology and capital in
the poor areas of the world in order to attain economic growth (Escobar, 1995:36).
Nevertheless, prior to Trumans speech in 1949, development planners during the 1940s
concentrated on rebuilding war-ravaged Europe and started the European Recovery
Programme (ERP).

The worlds leading politicians gathered at Bretton Woods in the United States in
July 1944 when the Second World War was drawing to a close. The Bretton Woods
conference of 44 nations led to the establishment of two financial institutions, namely,
the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, presently the World
Bank) for providing long-term finance for investment and the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) for providing short-term finance to compensate for balance of payments
deficits. Moreover, the Bretton Woods conference established the United Nations (UN),
one of the major players in the development industry, as the key international decision
making forum to maintain international political and military stability. It also
established the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which eventually
became the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to regulate international trade and
stabilise world commodity prices (Hewitt, 2000:291; Preston, 1986:76).

One of the first tasks assigned to these Bretton Woods institutions was to provide
capital to help put the war-ravaged European economies back on their feet. Between
1945 and 1950 the United States channelled US$ 19 billion through these institutions
under the Marshall Plan, largely in the form of grants for the economic reconstruction of
post-war Europe (Saunders, 2002:2). It especially aimed at moving Western Europe
progressively from its post-war condition of crisis towards a working economy
independent of outside support. The Marshall Plan, also known as the ERP, was
successful, through the Bretton Woods institutions, in supporting the restoration of the

12
European economy. In the 1940s western scholars and policy makers were motivated by
the success of the ERP. They perceived that infusion of foreign aid, investment and
increasing foreign trade could develop Third World countries. The revival of the
subdued European nations through a recovery programme like the Marshall Plan
convinced liberal economists and western development planners that aid based strategic
planning would enable developing countries to foster economic growth (Visvanathan,
1997a:2). For them, development and economic growth were synonymous. Liberal
economists dominated the Third World development thinking. They advocated a
basically unbalanced growth strategy that aimed at investment in a few key sectors of
the economy. They argued that growth of these sectors would create demand for other
economic sectors of the country. Thus, development in the core would lead to growth
inducing tendencies to backward regions through a trickledown process (Potter et al.
1999:46). The liberal development view was part of a wider modernisation theory
which believed that the existing gaps between the developed and developing nations
could gradually be covered on an imitative basis. The modernisation approach aimed to
turn the Third World into images of industrialised societies of the Western world. It was
the dominant approach in formulating development policy in the post war period. It
defined development as a natural, linear process away from traditional (primitive)
social and economic practices toward a Western style (civilised) economy. In the post
Second World War period W.W. Rostow produced the single most famous book on
modernisation and development. Rostows stages of growth model of development
achieved dominance in the strand of development economics. In his The Stages of
Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto Rostow (1960) argued that the
sequence of modernisation was uniform. Its possible to identify all societies, in their
economic dimensions, as lying within one of the five categories: the traditional society,
the pre-conditions for take-off, take-off, the drive to maturity, and the age of high mass
consumption (Rostow, 1960:4). He equated development with modernity and argued
that the developing societies with traditional values would move to a rational, industrial
economy in the process of modernisation.

Rostow claimed that the developed countries had passed all these stages and
achieved self-sustaining growth. In attaining development the developing countries also
could expect to go through these stages of modernisation. The challenge was to identify
barriers to development and necessary interventions to overcome these obstacles. The

13
subtitle of Rostows book, A Non-Communist Manifesto, stressed that development was
to take place in a capitalist context. The Rostovian growth model dominated the policies
of the major international financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank
through the early 1960s, setting targets for aid-flows to and growth rates for the
developing countries (Preston, 1982:96).

Development in the Third World

Economists and policy makers along the Rostovian growth model identified lack
of necessary factors of production, especially capital and technology, as the cause of
underdevelopment of developing countries. They identified rapid industrialisation as the
appropriate way to develop the Third World. They believed that investment in
industrialisation would withdraw surplus labour from the low productive agricultural
sector. Thus, the beginning of the economic take-off stage would start and the benefit of
growth gradually would go to the population at large through the trickledown effect
(Kuhnen, 1987; Young, 1993; Hewitt, 2000). Planners gave particular emphasis to
developing manufacturing capacity, ignoring the importance of agriculture. The idea
was that developing countries would first shift from producing primary products for
export to manufacturing mass consumer goods for both domestic and international
markets using unskilled labour. With the knowledge gained from this stage they would
be able to produce more sophisticated and luxurious goods. Finally, they would acquire
skills to produce capital goods as a better-skilled labour force emerged (Young, 1993:2-
3). It is argued that growth rate depends on savings rate which is insignificant in
developing countries and hence they needed capital aid to cover the shortage of funds
(Kuhnen, 1987:1). However, large-scale official flows of resources from developed
countries to the developing did not materialise and these countries were facing balance
of payments difficulties during the 1950s (Hewitt, 2000:294). The 1950s was a period
of rapid industrialisation in many developing countries. This was the era of import
substituting industrialisation (ISI) to supply consumer goods to the domestic market.
The ISI strategy often resulted in inefficient and uncompetitive industries in developing
countries (Young, 1993:70; Waylen, 1996:33).

The period from 1960 to 1969 was the first UN development decade.
Achievement of a minimum growth rate of 5% by each developing country was the UN

14
set objective of the decade. The UN urged developed countries to extend official
development assistance to developing countries. According to development strategy, the
industrial sector was assigned the dynamic role in these countries and little thought was
given to agriculture. However, by the mid-1960s the inability to produce sufficient food
for the growing urban masses in most of the developing countries became evident and
planners identified this inability as a major constraint to development (Myrdal, 1968,
cited in Young, 1993:3). Therefore, they assigned greater importance to modernising
domestic agriculture. The Green Revolution programme was implemented, which
introduced high yielding varieties (HYVs) of different food grains and associated
technical inputs in agriculture in order to achieve rapid success in increasing food
production. The Green Revolution programme achieved a rapid success in increasing
food production. It brought a shift from subsistence production to production for the
market. Nevertheless, the industrial countries granted less development aid than was
expected and multinational corporations emerged as the major source of finance for
developing countries. During the 1960s East Asian countries adopted an export-oriented
industrialisation (EOI) policy and provided various types of fiscal incentives to
encourage foreign investment. Governments of these countries established export
processing zones lifting restrictions on international transfer of profits (Frobel, et al.
1980:295) and gave tax exemptions for firms located there as well as exemption from
labour and other aspects of government legislation (Potter et al. 1999:83). During this
time multinational corporations were moving to the Third World to establish
manufacturing plants to utilise the cheap labour force of the developing countries. The
establishment of industrial units by multinational corporations in developing countries
increased capital flow in the form of foreign direct investment (FDI). In the 1960s 70%
of the capital flows into the Third World was FDI (Waylen, 1996:33). Throughout the
decade, the growth rate in the advanced economies accelerated and the gap between the
rich and poor countries in per capita incomes widened. Income distribution between the
rich and poor also widened. Moreover, most of the developing countries failed to
achieve the desired minimum annual growth rate and it became apparent that neither
was these countries taking off, nor was the expected trickledown taking place
(Hewitt, 2000:295). However, rather than interrogating the modernisation paradigm
itself, planners blamed rapid population growth in developing countries for not
achieving their desired economic growth rate (Young, 1993:10).

15
 The 1970s was the second development decade and during this time planners
brought about changes in their development thinking. They placed emphasis on
employment and redistribution with growth. Growth with employment was considered
to be a means of attaining a more equitable income distribution and reducing poverty.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) proposed the basic needs approach (BNA),
which focused on creating employment opportunities for people and providing their
essential needs (Young, 1993:7; Hewitt, 2000:297). The UN set objective of the second
development decade was to attain at least 6% average growth rate in GDP for Third
World countries. It stressed the need for financial assistance from developed to the
developing countries in order to accelerate growth. Nonetheless, at the end of the
decade it was evident that these countries had failed to attain the growth rate and the gap
between the developed and developing countries had further increased. Further, the flow
of financial resources to developing countries had decreased during this decade (Hewitt,
2000:300).

The 1980s was the third UN development decade. During this period the UN set
objectives for the developing nations, included attaining an average annual rate of
growth of GDP of 7%. The UN urged the developed countries to donate 0.7% of their
GNP to the developing countries to accelerate development. The 1980s, however, was a
terrible decade for the economies of developing countries as both official development
assistance and FDI declined during this period. Most of these countries failed to attain
the expected growth rate and the number of countries designated by the UN General
Assembly as least developed (LDCs) grew from 31 to 42 in the 1980s (op cit.:301).

During the 1960s and 1970s the developing countries borrowed large amounts of
money from developed countries and private banks respectively to fund large
infrastructure and development schemes. During this time, the economies of these
countries were based on exporting cheap raw materials and importing expensive
manufactured goods from ex-colonial rulers. The assertion of oil power by the oil
producing cartel OPEC (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) in the
1970s had a profound impact on the world economy and the Third World in particular.
Because of growing oil prices the developed countries slowed down their economies,
adopting anti-inflationary policies. They depressed prices and demand for commodities
from developing countries and allowed interest rates to rise. The decline in commodity

16
prices reduced the export earnings of Third World countries. Furthermore, during the
global recession in 1981-82 industrialised countries increased import tariffs, which
again made it harder for these countries to export their goods. Third World countries
had to pay out more and more while receiving less and less. This led to further balance
of payments difficulties for them and the governments of these countries were no longer
able to meet their debt repayments. They began to borrow money from banks just to
service their earlier debts and the result was an international debt crisis in the 1980s
(Hewitt, 2000:300; Potter, et al., 1999:11-12; Willis, 2005:49-50). In order to obtain
further loans and arrange debt repayments and rescheduling from the IMF, the crisis-
ridden countries were then required to implement structural adjustment programmes
(SAPs). SAPs, based on the free market neoliberal economic model, were IMF and
World Bank interventions aimed at enabling these countries to move from stabilisation
to export-led growth. SAPs included stabilisation measures to control inflation and to
create a large trade surplus to continue debt service payments and adjustment measures
to attain future economic prosperity. Stabilisation measures included such policies as
raising interest rates, reducing government welfare expenditure, increasing charges on
state-run utilities and currency devaluation. Adjustment measures involved opening up
the economy to foreign trade and investment, removing import quotas, reducing tariffs,
cutting off price controls, improving tax system, taking off wage controls and
privatisation. Both policy interventions emphasised the need to decrease the role of
government and to increase the role of the market in the economy (Green, 1995:42)
SAPs introduced free-market neoliberalism into developing countries but in most cases
it did not have the desired effect, rather it increased the poverty level, unemployment
rate and cost of living in developing countries (Willis, 2005:52).

However, in 1990 the UN reiterated the need for official development assistance
to the Third World and defined new priorities and goals for the growth of developing
countries for its fourth development decade (1991-2000). The UN recommended that
during this period developing countries should try to raise their rate of industrialisation
by 8-10% and increase their food production by 4% and development planners
accordingly formulated an International Development Strategy (IDS), which
emphasised sustainable development (Encyclopaedia of the Nations, 2006). They placed
emphasis on the growing incidence of poverty worldwide. They concentrated on
economic growth and their strategy was market driven where governments were

17
required to play an enabling role. During this decade private investment in developing
countries increased enormously. Nevertheless, development aid from the rich countries
was the lowest since development initiatives took off in the Third World and these
countries experienced negligible economic and social development. Despite these
failures the UN in 2000 set Millennium Development Goals, which were time-bound
quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty by 2015. In achieving these goals the
UN Millennium Declaration demanded a new partnership between developed and
developing countries. It stressed the need for mobilizing domestic resources, attracting
international flows and promoting international trade as an engine for development
(Sachs, 2005:4). The Millennium Declaration sought greater effort to mobilise more
international resources to attain the MDGs. Planners emphasised that the 0.7% target for
official development assistance to developing countries must be met and argued that
new sources of funding over and above this target should be actively explored and
developed (International Labour Organisation, 2004a:xiii).

Throughout this period, developing countries followed the prescriptions

formulated by dominant economists and planners, who were setting time-bound
objectives for these countries and insisting they take on policy measures in order to
attain development goals. The strategies of successive UN development decades have
recognised that developed countries have a responsibility to contribute to the financing
of development. The UN specified that each developed country should provide at least
0.7% of its annual GNP as official development assistance (Power, 2003:34). Planners
viewed industrialisation as the way to develop the Third World and initially these
countries adopted import substituting industrialisation (ISI) while during the 1960s East
Asian countries followed the export oriented industrialisation (EOI) approach to
development. The EOI was financed by foreign capital and it was argued that such
industry expands rapidly. The EOI strategy was successful and these countries increased
their overall level of production and they were termed as newly industrialised countries
(Potter et al. 1999:52, 85). Given this situation, policy makers during the 1970s urged
other Third World countries to follow the EOI strategy in their quest for development
instead of ISI approaches to development. However, most of the developing countries
could not attain the expected growth rate, which put the growth fetishism of
modernisation theory under criticism. Modernisation theory was a more general type of
development approach, which assumed that the benefits of economic growth would

18
trickledown to benefit all sectors of society. Yet, instead of sustained economic growth
and greater social equality, the modernisation approaches produced several negative
consequences in developing countries, for example, premature rise of consumption
standards in comparison to low levels of local productivity (Portes, 1997:230). The first
reaction to the inadequacies of modernisation theory arose from the Latin American
dependency school, which argued that underdevelopment of the Third World is caused
by unequal power relations between the developed and developing nations.
Modernisation theory often failed to consider the gendered aspects of development and
its gender-blind view also brought it under criticism from feminist activists, who argued
that women should be the key participants in development policies and programmes.
The following sections discuss the challenges to modernisation theory from the radical
dependency school and feminist theorists.

Development and dependency theory

Latin American radical social scientists focused on the nature of relationships

between the developed and developing countries, which was of primary concern in their
critical development thinking (Bernstein, 1971:153). Heavily influenced by Marxist
political economy, dependency theory posited that the cause of underdevelopment in
least developed countries (LDCs) was their dependence on industrialised nations (Sinha,
1995:567; Portes, 1997:231). For instance, prior to the Cuban revolution, Cubas
economy was based on sugar export and it was dependent on the USA for both market
and technology. Referring to Cuba, Cubitt (1988:39) argued that the economy of the
LDCs was mostly based on the export of raw materials and the import of manufactured
goods, which made them dependent. These countries were dependent on the advanced
economies to provide the skills and technology to develop the products and buy the
goods. Their dependence kept them underdeveloped. Their underdevelopment was not
historical backwardness; rather, it was the product of capitalist development (Amin,
1996:60). The dependency theorists developed the development of underdevelopment
thesis and argued that the development of industrialised countries and the
underdevelopment of developing countries were integral to capitalist development
processes. Frank (1967, cited in Potter et al., 1999:63) explained that they were the
opposite sides of the same coin and argued that both development and
underdevelopment were the necessary outcome and manifestation of the contradictions

19
of the capitalist system. The dependency school maintained that the world could be
perceived in terms of a core of developed and a periphery of underdeveloped countries,
where underdevelopment was largely a result of unequal and exploitative economic
relations between the core and periphery (Connelly et al., 2000:36). Frank (1969)
argued that the development of the capitalist system simultaneously generated
underdevelopment in some areas and development in others. The LDCs became
underdeveloped because of their integration into the world capitalist system. The
utilisation of economic surplus caused development and underdevelopment. Frank
identified the structure of the world capitalist system as one of metropolis and satellite.
The metropolis exploited the satellite and appropriated its economic surplus which, in
turn, kept the satellite underdeveloped. Frank argued that the satellites experienced
economic development when they were economically isolated from the metropolises.
Latin America initiated marked industrialisation and growth during the period of two
world wars, since it had very loose trade and investment ties with the metropolis during
these periods. Development in the region, however, reversed when, Frank claimed, the
metropolis recovered from crisis and re-established trade and investment ties. Referring
to Japan he argued that despite being a resource-poor country Japan industrialised
quickly as it was never a satellite. He stressed that the regions that were most
underdeveloped today were those which had the closest ties to the metropolis in the past.
These regions were the greatest exporters of primary products to and the biggest sources
of capital for the world metropolis. Therefore, underdevelopment must be viewed from
a global perspective (Chew and Denemark, 1996:2).

Feminist critiques of development

Modernisation theories assumed that development was largely economic. They

defined development in terms of economic growth measured through Gross National
Product (GNP) and as such, womens role in development processes was invisible,
since much of womens work occurs beyond the overt context of monetary economy.
Therefore, policy makers assumed that men were the most productive workers and their
assumption led to the worldwide failure to evaluate womens contribution to productive
activities (Sachs, 1985:127). Feminist scholars focused specifically on the lack of
consideration of women in the development process. They studied the role women
played in development as well as the effect of development policies on them. A number

20
of studies beginning with Ester Boserups Womens Role in Economic Development
(1970) have shown that development processes have not only ignored womens
contribution to the economy but also have had a detrimental effect on their economic
position and status. Development interventions in Third World countries increased
womens work load and worsened the status of their work (Escobar, 1995:171) and
thus, inequality between men and women in society increased. The exclusion of women
from the development process and its detrimental effects on them were issues of
concern for feminists and the initial reaction was from liberal feminists who argued for
womens integration into development processes, which became known as the women
in development (WID) approach.

Liberal feminism and women in development (WID)

Liberal feminists examined the development process and advocated the

integration of women into development. They challenged and responded to the
inadequacies of modernisation theory, which said very little specifically about women.
WID was a response to the inadequacies of the modernisation approach although it
largely remained within this paradigm (Waylen, 1996:37), since liberal feminism
believed in the viability of the capitalist economic system (Bandarage, 1984:495).
Liberal development thinking ignored women during the First UN Development
Decade. Elson (1995:4) argued that the development process in Third World countries
remained male-biased and tended to hamper women from acquiring any benefit from
the development effort. It denied women adequate access to productive inputs.
Development objectives were defined in such a way that these were more beneficial to
men than to women. In most cases womens interests were marginalised in the
formulation and implementation of economic policy. Modernisation theory asserted that
development required the emergence of rational industrial man who acknowledged
different opinions and was receptive to new ideas. It viewed women as close to nature
and perceived them to be tradition-bound, conservative and therefore obstacles to
modernisation (Scott, 1996:24). The perceptions of modernisation theory had
marginalised women and their contribution to the economies of the Third World.
Mainstream development processes largely benefited men and displaced women from
their traditional productive roles and thus affected women adversely.

21
 In the early 1970s Danish agricultural economist Ester Boserup first best
illustrated the negative impacts of development on women and reported that many
development projects failed to improve the lives of Third World women. She provided
documentary evidence and noted that development processes in Third World countries
marginalised women economically and socially. They were deprived of economic
opportunities and status, which increased their exploitation and subordination in society.
Further, the process of development increased their dependence on men in developing
countries. Boserups documentation of the negative impacts of development on women
signalled the beginning of liberal feminists advocacy of the integration of women into
development as workers and producers. Liberal feminism stressed the importance of
including women in development planning since their integration into the process would
give them access to economic resources, which would provide them with the benefits of
development (Kabeer, 1994:20). These arguments are best analysed and explained in
Boserups Womens Role in Economic Development (1970), Tinkers The Adverse
Impact of Development on Women (1976) and Rogers The Domestication of Women:
Discrimination in Developing Societies (1980).

Boserup argued in Womens Role in Economic Development that the difference

between male and female in traditional economies was proportional to the difference in
their physical strength (1970:53), while the introduction of technology in modern
economies made agriculture less dependent on human physical strength. Boserup
critiqued the colonial and post-colonial agricultural policies, arguing that productivity-
enhancing interventions had facilitated mens monopoly over new technologies. Men
were associated with the modern cash-cropping sector while women were relegated to
the traditional subsistence agriculture (1970:139). The modern economy brought new
resources and opportunities to men, leaving women on the margins of development. The
development process, thus, affected women and men differentially. The modernisation
of agriculture created the gender division of labour and increased the dependant status
of women as well as their workload. Men were introduced to cash crop cultivation by
modern methods while women continued subsistence crop cultivation for the family
using traditional methods. Boserup maintained that cash crop production and wage jobs
were made available to men only. Cash crop cultivation brought money for men.
Therefore, it was only possible for men to buy land when selling of land was
introduced. The introduction of primary education created another gap between men and

22
women. Boys were sent to school while girls were confined to informal education.
Thus, women were deprived of access to training, property rights, education and
technology, which in turn, made the status of women in society inferior or secondary.

Boserup illustrated that in developing countries many towns grew up through

development processes, which she termed male towns, where only men were recruited
for employment and access to the towns was often legally barred for women
(1970:85). This was the case in South Africa and former Rhodesia, while in the Copper
Belt in Zambia the employers provided land, where miners wives could grow food for
the family. It kept women confined in traditional activities. Boserup argued that in
market economies of the Third World employers preferred men and created a sex-
stereotyped hierarchy, while womens prejudice and lack of proper qualifications
inhibited them from seeking employment in the modern sector. Since [e]mployment in
[the] modern sector requires not only formal training, but also a certain attitude to
work which may best be described as the capacity to work regularly and attentively [...]
Those who work within the confines of the family are not likely to acquire this attitude
(1970:214). Boserup elaborated the basic element of modernisation and attacked it, as it
failed to benefit women in the Third World. She pointed out that parents taught that
boys were superior to girls and such a view of male ascendance was also reflected in the
policy process. Boys were provided with vocational training, while girls were trained to
make them subsistence producers and better wives. She concluded that in some
developing countries women were trained in craft and home industries and this was the
first step to bring them into labour market. She called for proper education and training
for women to enhance their competitiveness in the economic sphere.

Irene Tinker presented a similar analysis in her The Adverse Impact of

Development on Women (1976). She argued that both development planners and
implementers were generally men and they failed to realise that women had to perform
two roles in society. As a result, development widened the gap between incomes of men
and women (1976:22). In subsistence societies women perform both reproductive work
and economic activity. Nevertheless, Western industrial society glorifies motherhood
and downgrades the economic activity associated with child care and household work
and this view is disseminated throughout the world. Acceptance of this stereotypical
role defines womens place in the home and classifies them as economically dependent

23
forever. Moreover, it makes the productive role of women invisible. Tinker suggested,
planners must recognise womens dual role and rethink the mythical stereotypes,
which led to the definition of the labour force in terms of work performed for money
and work located in the modern sector. They must consider subsistence labour,
household work, childcare and other activities in the tertiary or informal sectors in
defining work. Women played a very important role in the subsistence economy. They
were also engaged in a variety of other economic activities spinning fibres, weaving
cloth, drawing water, tending market gardens and processing and preserving foods
gathered from communal property (1976:25). Under tribal custom they had rights to
land as users but the introduction of cash crops and of the concept of private property
favoured men. She concluded, the process of development has tended to restrict the
economic independence of women as their traditional jobs have been challenged by new
methods and technologies. Because Western stereotypes of appropriate roles and
occupations for women tend to be exported with aid and modernisation continually
increases the gap between womens and mens ability to cope with the modern world
(1976:33).

Barbara Rogers explained the attitude of international agencies towards women in

development planning in her work, The Domestication of Women: Discrimination in
Developing Societies (1980). She argued that women remained absent from planning
and development processes in the Third World, since policy makers failed to realise
womens role in the process as a whole. She articulated that planners based their
planning on the domestic model familiar to them that a womans place is in the home.
They furthermore blamed the local government or tradition in justifying the absence of
women in the development process. It is flatly stated that the government concerned
would not approve the involvement of women and therefore none should be nominated;
and it is not generally thought necessary to attempt to verify such statements (Rogers,
1980:50). Rogers quoted an employment advertisement for a job in East Africa by the
United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), which asked only men to apply, arguing
that the governments of the East African countries would not be able to work with a
woman. She noted that there was no such evidence in support of this assertion; rather, a
number of professional women were working in these countries at that time for bilateral
and international development agencies. Thus, she argued, women were highly
discriminated against in the UN family and there were virtually no women working as

24
experts for the Technical Assistance Recruitment Service (TARS) run by the United
Nations.

Rogers made an in-depth study of the development planning process of the

international organisations and offered a fresh insight into the pattern and practice of
sex discrimination within the major international development agencies. She provided
examples of sex segregation in development planning and argued that male planners did
not recognise the participation of women in development. They treated women as male
controlled unpaid labour and therefore denied them incentives. She examined some
development interventions and pointed out that the discriminatory attitude of planners to
women undermined project performance. She argued that planners needed to eliminate
discrimination against women at all levels. They should find ways to save womens
labour and to ensure that incentives were given to both women and men according to
their contribution (Rogers, 1980:192).

The documentation of the adverse impacts of development on womens lives

inspired and initiated liberal feminists advocacy for the integration of women into
development. Liberal feminism talked about equality of rights and opportunities for
women and men in society (Gordon, 1996:13). Liberal feminism was rooted in the ideas
of liberal philosophy, which focused on equality and liberty. Liberal feminists drew a
distinction between sex (biological) and gender (social) differences between women and
men and saw womens subordination as resulting from stereotyped customary norms
held by men and internalised by women. They argued that womens subordination could
be eliminated by breaking down these stereotypes and by giving them equal
opportunities in all aspects of life including education and employment. Equal
employment opportunity for women was an area of especial attention for them
(Connelly et al., 2000:39). Liberal feminists demanded womens full integration into the
development process and their movement had a major formative influence on the
women and development approach. The term women in development was first coined
in the early 1970s by a Washington-based network of women development
professionals (Razavi & Miller, 1995a:2-3). On the basis of their own experience of
development initiatives in the Third World, these feminist activists challenged the
trickledown theory of development. They argued that modernisation was impacting
differently on women and men. Development processes in the Third World bypassed

25
women and failed to improve their rights and status. Moreover, it deteriorated their
position in developing countries. In order to improve the status of women, they lobbied
for womens integration into national economies (Pearson, 2000a:390). Hence, it is
evident that both liberal feminists and the Washington-based network of women
development professionals were thinking along the same lines in relation to womens
emancipation. Both these groups talked of womens integration into development,
which is best known as the WID approach.

From women in to gender and perspective

Boserups documentation of the negative impacts of development on women

initiated the liberal feminists advocacy of integration of women into the development
process. Liberal feminists within the WID framework critiqued the development effort
in Third World countries. They challenged the modernisation process although they
remained situated within the modernisation paradigm. WID thinkers placed emphasis on
the productive roles of women and argued for better opportunities for them in
development processes. This advocacy was certainly a step in the right direction
(Kabeer, 1994:29) and their efforts contributed to the shifts in policy framework.
Nevertheless, the WID approach was subject to much criticism. It was argued that the
WID approach failed to acknowledge womens contribution to the economy and
adopted modernisation theory without questioning the implications of reproductive roles
for women. Proponents of this approach concentrated only on how women could better
be integrated into ongoing development initiatives (Rathgeber, 1989:6) and their
demand for womens integration into development processes reinforced the colonial
representation of Third World women (Chowdhury, 1995:34) who needed help to
develop. They promoted development practices that ignored particularities, differences
and local knowledge (Parpart & Marchand, 1995:1)

The WID approach was thus critiqued for appearing to accept the existing social
structures without questioning the sources of womens subordination and oppression.
Proponents of this approach were motivated by evidence from the Third World, which
showed that womens status was declining in developing countries. In the process of
modernising agriculture, colonial rulers introduced new technologies and the sexual
divisions of labour. Liberal feminists did not question the introduction of such divisions.

26
They demanded womens inclusion into the development process but did not advocate
structural change to the system, in which women were to be included. They did not
question the notion of the male breadwinner. However, since women did not
subsequently gain from the development effort in developing countries, they urged
policy makers to redress the problems so that women could share the fruits of
modernisation (Visvanathan, 1997b:20). The WID projects typically had been income
generating activities for women, which required learning a particular skill or craft
(Rathgeber, 1989:7). As such, integration came to mean small and separate projects for
women compartmentalised within development programmes and their continued
absence from priority development projects. They remained absent from higher levels of
planning and planners failed to treat them as equal agents in development (Goetz,
1991:139). Thus, the WID approach failed to respond to some of the fundamental issues
related to womens subordination, which resulted in its facing challenges from other
theoretical perspectives.

Marxist feminists (Hartsock, 1979; Dixon, 1980) viewed the inequalities between
women and men as a part of the larger systems of inequality created by capitalism. In
explaining womens subordination they used the dependency paradigm and argued that
capitalism kept women in the home and perpetuated their subordination by enforcing
their economic dependence on men (Connelly et al., 2000:86) and by relegating them to
unpaid subsistence work. Radical feminists (Firestone, 1970; Eisenstein, 1984)
extended the Marxist-feminist critique of global capitalism and argued that male-female
relation was fundamentally a relationship of power. They analysed patriarchy or the
domination of women by men in explaining male-female relation (Kabeer, 1994:50-51).
Connelly (et al., 2000:89) notes that radical feminists believed that men as a group
oppressed women in society and gained from this oppression. Radical feminists argued
that patriarchy existed in all societies and was the fundamental source of inequality.
Analysis of womens subordination by the Marxist feminists and the radical feminists
served as a backdrop for a new approach to the development of women, which called
for self-reliant development emphasising women-only projects and warned against close
cooperation with male dominated institutions. This approach, which emerged in the
second half of the 1970s and into the 1980s, is known as women and development
(WAD) (Parpart & Marchand, 1995:13).

27
 The WID approach critiqued Third World development approaches, since women
were excluded from development processes, whilst Southern feminists and the
international network Development Alternatives for Women in a New Era (DAWN)
critiqued development policies since they perceived these to be problematic (Parpart,
1993:450; Pearson, 2000:390). Development planners considered Third World women
as a homogenous group and ignored their lived experiences. The universal presentation
of Third World women as uniformly poor and vulnerable was an issue of concern for
them. They developed the WAD approach and argued that women had always been part
of development processes and the nature of their integration in development sustained
the existing structure of inequality. They emphasised taking womens diverse
experiences into consideration and stressed the need for breaking down the structures of
inequality (Sen & Grown, 1987). The WAD perspective related womens subordination
to international structures and assumed that womens position would improve if
international relations became more equitable. It explained womens subordination
referring to the global economy and was preoccupied with the productive sector at the
expense of reproductive side of womens work and lives. WAD intervention strategies
therefore fell into the same trap as WID concentrating on productive activities such as
income generating projects for women devaluing their reproductive roles (Rathgeber,
1989:9-10). However, the limitations of WID and WAD led socialist feminists (Beneria
& Sen, 1981; Hartman, 1981; Young, 1981) to explore alternative theoretical
frameworks on development in the mid to late 1980s. They critiqued the WID approach,
identified the limitations of the WAD movement, extended it and inspired the gender
and development (GAD) perspective, taking gender as a category of analysis, which
referred to the socially constructed relations between women and men. The GAD
approach emphasised gender relations in both the labour force and the reproductive
sphere (Visvanathan, 1997b:23).

Relations between women and men in every society are one of power, which is
structured in inequality, where men are perceived as dominant and women are
subordinate. Female subordination is created structurally by the pervasive ideology of
male superiority, which shapes womens and mens view of themselves and their
capacities. That men as a gender exercise control over valued political, economic and
social resources is also another source of womens subordination. Therefore,
dismantling the structures, which create womens subordination, by changing laws,

28
religious and political institutions, systems of beliefs and values and socialisation
practices is crucial in balancing the power relation in society (Young, 1993:134).
Women have to be empowered and giving them training, credit and access to resources
are indeed very useful steps in their empowerment. The GAD framework is grounded in
several key propositions. It argues that women are integrated into the development
process in very specific ways and a focus on women alone is inadequate to understand
this integration or the opportunities available to them through their integration for
agency or change. The focus of analysis should be the totality of womens and mens
lives, not merely their productive or reproductive roles (op cit.). Women are not a
homogenous group; rather, they are divided by race, class, culture etc. Mainstream
feminist scholarship did not focus on the differences between women but rather on their
universal identity. The GAD perspective critiques the category woman in feminist
writings and argues that the analysis of contextual social organisations and social
processes has to be taken into account to explain gender relations (Cornwall, 1997:9).

The WID School focuses largely on the outward manifestations of sexual

inequality engendered by economic modernisation processes. In contrast, socialist
feminists argue that sexual inequality is related to social class inequality and to the
uneven and unequal development of capitalism world-wide (Bandarage, 1984:501).
They seek fundamental explanations for womens subordination focusing on gender
relations. Beneria & Sen (1981, 1997) criticised Boserup for neglecting the
interconnections between social processes of capital accumulation, class formation and
the declining status of women. In the process of generation and intensification of
inequalities, they described Boserups idea of better education and training for women
to emancipate them from their declining status as treating cancer with a bandaid
(1981:287; 1997:47). They argued that the roots of womens subordination must be
analysed within the sphere of both production and reproduction in economic, social and
cultural structures. Liberalism believed that womens poverty and subordination are
simply aberrations within an otherwise just and equitable social system (Bandarage,
1984:499), which could be corrected through legislative reforms, attitudinal changes
and employment generation for women, since they were due to traditional values and
male ignorance. Bandarage critiqued the liberal perspective, arguing that it was not
aberration but rather a structural feature of capitalism where exploitation was the root.

29
Therefore, the solutions needed not only political initiatives but also fundamental
structural changes.

Socialist feminists argue that womens reproductive role is a determinant of their

work, the sexual division of labour and the relation between women and men in society.
From her study of Indian lace makers, Mies (1986:134) points out that woman do this
work in their leisure time at home. They consider themselves as housewives and the
wages they get are far below the minimum wage of agricultural labourers. Beneria and
Sen (1981:295; 1997:50) argue that the ideology of seclusion confines women at home
and makes them willing to accept extremely low wages. A strict focus on the production
aspect of lace making presents only a partial picture of the nature of womens
exploitation. Therefore, placing emphasis on womens reproductive role, socialist
feminists stressed the need for examining both their productive and reproductive roles
and the interaction between these two. Liberal feminists uncritically accepted the
capitalist system. They ignored the reality that equal opportunity for women and men
did not exist within capitalism as the structure of inequality in it was based on race,
class and sex. Hence, socialist feminists talked about transforming unequal social
relations and called for the elimination of class and sex hierarchies through a radical
transformation of society (Beneria and Sen (1981:295; 1997:50).

Building upon and emerging from socialist feminism, the GAD perspective
viewed women as active agents of change, not as passive recipients of development
(Rathgeber, 1989:13; Rai, 2002:71) and focused on gender relations, the relations
between women and men in the workplace as well as other settings. It advocated the
provision of education, training and access to resources for women, which were
immediate perceived needs for them. Nevertheless, the WID world-view failed to
consider the question of male power as a property of gender relations, whilst GAD
proponents advocated womens empowerment through redistribution of power between
men and women in order to overcome their subordination to men. They stressed
womens self-organisation to increase their political power within the economic system.
The GAD approach sought support from all levels of the state- local, regional and
central (Young, 1997:51-54). It emphasised womens empowerment and argued that
improving the status of women required active cooperation from men.

30
 The GAD approach led to the design of intervention and affirmative action
strategies to ensure better integration of women into ongoing development efforts. It led
to a fundamental re-examination of social structures and institutions to balance the
power relations, which would affect women and men (Rathgeber, 1989:13-14). The
GAD perspective identified women as a diverse group based on their race and class
identity but it rarely explicitly challenged the goal of modernisation (Parpart &
Marchand, 1995:14). The concept of GAD offered a new approach to including women
into development processes. However, gender analysis failed to give any clear idea
about the ways individual women and men experienced gender roles and relations in
society. It, rather, took sexual differences as the starting point of analysis and hence,
could not explain the dynamics of differences between societies (Cornwall, 1997:9).

The various perspectives on women and development have contributed important

theoretical and practical insights to development. The GAD perspective, however, had a
considerable effect on academic development discourse and inspired the postcolonial
feminist approach. The issue of colonial discourse, in fact, has been the most immediate
link between postcolonial feminism and gender and development (Parpart & Marchand,
1995:15). Postcolonial feminism incorporated postmodern and postcolonial approaches
to theorising development. Both these approaches focused on considering diversity and
understanding power in the construction of development. Postmodernism challenged the
European route to development, which assumed the population of the Third World to be
homogenous. Instead, it stressed diversity in social, spatial and temporal terms.
Recognition of diversity and difference has been one of the most appealing aspects of
post colonialism (Parpart, 1993:443; Willis, 2005:120-121). Colonial discourse
developed from the works of Edward Said. Said initiated a systematically analysis of
the production of the Orient in Orientalism (1975). He articulated that Europeans
came into contact with many Indian and African nations in the nineteenth century
thorough colonial expansion. Said argued that the West produced these nations and their
cultures as Other to a Western norm. The colonial discourse assumed that Third World
women were voiceless, non-liberated and tradition-bound and were an important
impediment to modernity and development (Parpart, 1993:447). They needed to be
civilised and developed like western women, who were modern, educated and had
controlled their bodies and sexuality. Postcolonial feminists (Goetz, 1991; Parpart, 1993)
rejected this broad generalisation and argued that there was no single womens

31
situation. Womens lives were affected by multiple variables such as race, ethnicity or
class and hence there could never be a single voice that expressed all womens concerns
(Rathgeber, 1995:207). Race, culture, religion, class, etc., must be incorporated into
feminist analysis. Postmodernists critique the universal pretensions of modernity and
assert the need for the deconstruction of development discourse. Postcolonial feminists
maintain that spatial and cultural contexts formulate the complexity of life as lived
experiences and therefore, they put emphasis on local, specific and historically
informed analysis on the basis of spatial and cultural contexts (Parpart & Marchand,
1995:4). They call for the recognition of differences and listening to the silenced and
ignored voices of Third World women. For them, actual experiences are the only basis
to formulate effective and appropriate strategies for improving womens lives (Parpart,
1995:240).

Postcolonial feminism has offered valuable contributions to theorising about

development. It has revitalised feminism by questioning many assumptions that were
under or unexamined previously and, thus, enriched feminist thought by encouraging
differences and multiple identities in feminism. It emphasised discourse analysis and
deconstruction of knowledge. However, despite its valuable contribution, postcolonial
feminism was not beyond criticism. This approach did not propose any strategies for the
development of womens lives that policy makers could think of. The argument that
women in Third World countries experience their lives differently in different contexts
does not entail that they cannot have anything in common. At least, women everywhere
are facing sexism. Some feminists argue that there are widely varying viewpoints in
feminism. The emergence of postcolonial feminism has empowered this area of
knowledge. Nonetheless, others are concerned with the potential loss of feminist
community because it is difficult to plan any action for the development of women
without a fundamental share of feminist philosophy and a concept of woman.

The woman issues in the policy domain

Development specialists initially considered women as obstacles to development.

They adopted the colonial representation of Third World women as tradition-bound
beings, either unable or unwilling to enter the modern world. This vision of Third
World women provided a rationale for ignoring them during the first development

32
decade (Parpart & Marchand, 1995:13). Policy makers viewed women in relation to
their reproductive roles. They considered them the recipients of development effort and
believed that women would gain through the trickledown effect. They ignored womens
contribution to the economy. As such, mainstream development efforts largely
benefited men and marginalised women in society, displacing them from their
traditional productive roles. Illustrations of womens marginalization in development
and a growing demand from feminist groups for their integration into the development
process during the 1970s drew the attention of policy makers. The growth of feminism
and the search for practical solutions to the failure of development contributed to shifts
in development policy formulation. Policy makers were influenced by the WID
advocacy, which emerged as a transitional movement (Newland, 1991:124).

Womens integration into development was called by WID, WAD and GAD
proponents, although their perspectives were to some extent different. Drawing on
liberal feminists call to integrate women into development, the WID movement sought
womens equality through income generating projects for them and access to resources,
whilst WAD proponents argued for women-only projects separated from men. GAD
proponents similarly stressed the need for womens access to training and resources but
also wanted changes in the existing social structure for womens better integration into
development for their emancipation. Postmodern and postcolonial feminists wanted to
understand the lives and experiences of Third World women in specific temporal and
spatial contexts. They sought womens emancipation but did not specify any strategy of
inclusion in development. Rather they urged planners to avoid broad generalisations and
emphasised spatial knowledge in formulating development interventions. Thus, all these
approaches to womens emancipation had important insights and views. Policy planners
and development institutions, however, remained situated within the broad WID
paradigm influenced by liberal feminism. Although the first development decade
ignored women, the second UN development decade linked women and development. It
gave importance to the greater integration of women in total development efforts
(Verceles, 1970:9; Tinker, 1990:29, 1997:34). The United Nations arranged a world
conference on women and development in 1975. One of the main themes of this
conference was equality between men and women. The meeting adopted the World Plan
for Action, which contained objectives relating to improved educational opportunities,
better employment prospects, equality in political and social participation, and increased

33
welfare services for women (Young, 1993:25). The United Nations declared 1976-85
the UN Decade for Women with the official themes of equality, peace and development.
The UN declaration of a Decade for Women played a crucial role in highlighting the
previously invisible role of women in economic development. The World Bank
established a Women in Development Division declaring WID an area of special
operational emphasis (Chowdhury, 1995:31). This initiative of the World Bank had its
impact on different governments and resulted in the establishment of women affairs
ministries or at least bureaux. The WID group was also able to influence the United
States Government and in 1973 the US Senate adopted the policy to encourage and
promote the integration of women into all aspects of development planning and policy
making bodies (Pearson, 2000a:390). The WID advocacy efforts thus led to some
enduring shifts in policy approaches to Third World development. Planners designed
various programmes directed at Third World women, which reflected policy evolution.
Moser (1991:95-110) classified the WID projects initiated by the World Bank into five
approaches, namely, the welfare approach, the equity approach, the anti-poverty
approach, the efficiency approach and the empowerment approach.

The welfare approach focused on women solely in terms of their reproductive role
and considered child rearing as the most effective role of women in all aspects of
economic development. Direct provision of food, nutrition project for children, pregnant
and nursing mothers, and population control through family planning are examples of
the welfare approach. The welfare approach was a reflection of stereotypical images of
Third World women. It identified them as the passive recipients of development and
therefore, it is not surprising that the concern of the welfare approach was to meet the
practical gender needs of women. Moser builds practical and strategic gender needs on
Molyneuxs work (1985) regarding practical and strategic gender interests. Practical
gender interests refer to womens and mens immediate perceived needs, which are
required to fulfil their current socially-constructed roles. The provision of income
earning activities and other basic welfare needs such as food, water and shelter are
examples of practical gender needs for women. In contrast, strategic needs derive from
the analysis of womens subordination and are formulated to overcome their
subordinate position. The abolition of the sexual division of labour, the alleviation of
the burden of domestic labour and childcare, and the establishment of freedom of choice
over childbearing are examples of strategic gender needs for women (Molyneux,

34
1985:232-233; Moser, 1991:95-110). The welfare approach, introduced in the 1950s,
was the most popular social development policy for women in particular. Nevertheless,
by the 1970s there was widespread dissatisfaction with this approach, since
development projects were negatively affecting women. Criticisms of female
professionals and researchers resulted in the initiation of a number of alternative
approaches to women, namely, equity, anti-poverty, efficiency and empowerment.

The equity approach emerged in the 1970s. It recognised women as active

participants in development who provided a critical contribution to economic growth
through their both productive and reproductive roles. It started with the basic
assumption that development strategies have frequently had a negative impact on
women and as such stressed the need for bringing them into development processes
through access to employment. It recognised their practical gender needs to earn a
livelihood and placed considerable emphasis on economic independence as being
synonymous with equity. Therefore, this approach met important strategic gender needs
by eradicating obstacles to womens advancement in public spheres. In order to
bringing equality between the sexes, the equity approach placed emphasis on positive
discrimination policies in a process of redistribution and a focus on legislative changes.
However, it did not set any indicator of social status or progress of women.

The anti-poverty approach linked economic inequality between women and men
to poverty and emphasised reducing income inequality. Since modernisation theory
failed to redistribute income and trickledown did not take place, development initiatives
failed to solve the problems of Third World poverty and unemployment. Therefore, in
1972 the World Bank formulated policies such as eradication of absolute poverty and
the promotion of redistribution with growth. The anti-poverty approach aimed at
reducing poverty, meeting basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter and fuel as well as
social needs such as education, human rights and participation in social life through
employment and political involvement. It focused mainly on womens reproductive role
and identified them as the poorest of the poor who needed assistance and emphasised
increasing employment and income-generating options for them through better access to
productive resources. Chowdhury (1995:33) argued that the anti-poverty approach
portrayed women as traditional and voiceless; it treated them as objects, who needed
help, not subjects, who could be active participants in development.

35
 The efficiency approach was a reflection of the policy makers realisation of
womens important role in economy. Women constitute more than half the worlds
human resources. Indeed, their effective and proper inclusion in development processes
would lead to more efficient growth. This approach urged development efforts to
recognise the contributions of women to the economy and to integrate them into
development processes (Chowdhury (1995:33). The structural adjustment programmes
(SAPs) of the mid 1970s are examples of the efficiency approach, which defined
economics only in terms of marketed goods and services and subsistence cash economy.
SAPs recognised women as an under-utilised resource for development. The
efficiency approach emphasised womens productive roles and ignored their
reproductive activities. This approach was simply a shifting of costs from the paid to the
unpaid economy at the expense of womens unpaid workload within the household. As
a result, the structural adjustment programmes impacted negatively on women.

The fifth approach of the World Bank was the empowerment approach, which
emerged during the 1980s from the writings of the Third World feminists. This
approach acknowledged the importance for women of increasing their power. It
identified power as the right to make choices in life and to influence the direction of
change through the ability to gain control over resources. It sought to empower women
through the redistribution of power. The empowerment approach remains largely
unsupported by both national governments and bilateral aid agencies due to its
challenging nature. It thus had little influence on development industry.

Women in development became a very popular concept once it was articulated in

the 1970s. Both government and feminist activists appreciated this concept throughout
the second and third world conferences on women arranged by the United Nations in
1985 and 1990 respectively (Tinker, 1990:31, 1997:35). However, some of those
working in the field of development were questioning the adequacy of focusing on
women in isolation (Razavi & Miller, 1995a:12) and in the fourth world conference on
women, held in Beijing, planners shifted their attention from women to gender, where
the central point was gender equality and empowerment of women. Feminist scholars
developed the concept of gender, which refers to the meanings and roles assigned to
women and men and the different resources and opportunities available to both of them
accordingly. In most societies men and women differ in the activities they undertake, in

36
access to and control over resources and in participation in decision making,
maintaining gender inequalities, which planners regarded as an obstacle to development
(Moghadam & Senftova, 2005:390). Therefore, feminists advocated gender equality,
arguing for the redistribution of power between the sexes. They stressed the need for
womens empowerment, which in turn, would balance the power relations between
women and men. Relating to choices and capabilities, Kabeer (1999:437-438) defines
empowerment as a process of change through which people acquire an ability to make
choices, which they were previously denied. Kabeer distinguishes three dimensions of
empowerment. Firstly, empowerment entails choice with regard to access to resources,
secondly, it entails agency in decision-making and negotiating power. The third
dimension of empowerment comprises achievements referring to the potential of the
people for living the lives they want. Therefore, empowerment requires meeting both
womens practical and strategic needs. The equality in access to resources and the
restructuring of institutions are central to it. It means placing the gender equality issue at
the centre of policy decisions, planning processes and institutional practices. It requires
the systematic application of a gender-aware vision or in other words gender
mainstreaming. The Beijing conference in 1995 introduced the gender mainstreaming
(GM) concept, which established the need for gender analysis before undertaking any
development policy and programme. GM is a globally accepted strategy for achieving
gender equality. This is not an end in itself; rather, a strategy to achieve the goal of
gender equality. It involves ensuring gender perspectives are central to all activities-
research, policy formulation, advocacy, resource allocation, planning, implementation
and monitoring of projects. The UN Economic and Social Council defined gender
mainstreaming (cited in Porter & Sweetman, 2005:2) as:

[T]he process of assessing the implications for men and women of any
planned action, including legislation, policies and programmes, in all areas
and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women's as well as men's
concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in
all political, economic and social spheres so that women and men benefit
equally and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal is to achieve
gender equality.

37
 Jahan (1995:13) distinguishes two broad approaches of gender mainstreaming,
namely, integrationist and agenda-setting. The Integrationist approach intends to
integrate women into existing development frameworks, where development priorities
do not change because of gender considerations. The agenda-setting approach requires
the transformation of existing development agendas with a gender perspective, which
needs womens participation in development decision making. All development
activities have a gendered dimension and impact. They may not benefit women and men
equally. Keeping this view in consideration gender mainstreaming seeks to understand
the roles, responsibilities, resources and priorities of women and men within a specific
context. The Beijing Platform for Action designates 12 priority areas in relation to
womens equality and empowerment (Antrobus, 2005:95), which was reinforced in the
Millennium Declaration adopted by all UN member states in 2000. The Millennium
Declaration addressed the issues of gender inequality and aimed to attain gender
equality and the empowerment of women (Sweetman, 2005:3). Both the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and gender mainstreaming approach shift the focus from
women to gender and are concerned about the unequal power relations between women
and men. The MDGs recognise the importance of womens equality and rights in
achieving economic and social progress. In particular the third Millennium
Development goal promote gender equality and empower women in essence talks
about womens access to resources and empowerment (Heyzer, 2005:9). Kabeer
(2006:29-36) identifies three types of resources, namely, access to employment, access
to education and political representation as indicators of womens empowerment. She
argues that each of the resources in question is important in bringing about changes that
could lead to gender equality and womens empowerment.

Conclusion

Development became one of the most dominant concepts since the post-war
period of the 1940s and the legitimacy of development goals were never questioned;
rather, questions evolved around the approaches to development in developing
countries. Western planners perceived industrialisation to be the strategy of modernising
Third World societies and asserted the need for capital importation in these countries in
the form of aid to initiate industrialisation, since they lacked capital. During the first
two postcolonial decades the policy was import substitution industrialisation for

38
producing goods for domestic markets and thereafter the development approach shifted
to export-oriented industrialisation. The developing countries adopted policies to
produce goods for the global market and became dependent on trade. Thus, the
development paradigm over the years shifted from aid to trade dependency for the
developing nations, although modernisation remained beyond reach. Development
efforts somewhat adversely affected people and women in particular and as such, the
legitimacy of development approaches to Third World development was called into
question. In terms of continued underdevelopment in developing nations, dependency
theorists reasoned the dependence of these countries on the developed world, whereas
feminists argued that policy makers ignored womens productive role and emphasised
their reproductive activities. Consequently women in developing countries were
adversely affected. The development process in Third World countries marginalised
women by displacing them from productive activities and deprived them of their control
over resources (Afshar, 1991:1). Liberal feminists were the first who identified the
negative impacts of development and inspired the women in development (WID)
movement. The WID approach gave importance to womens productive roles and
emphasised their integration into the formal economy as a means of improving their
status (Razavi & Miller, 1995a:3). It argued for job opportunities for women since the
provision of jobs has often been seen as an important way of integrating women into the
development process (Elson & Pearson, 1981a:87). The WAD approach contested WID
claims and identified capitalism and patriarchy as the source of womens subordination.
It accordingly advocated women-only projects beyond male dominated institutions. The
GAD approach emerged in development discourse, building upon WAD as an
alternative to the WID movement. It took gender as the key category of analysis. In
order to achieve gender equality, this approach emphasised the analysis of both gender
roles and relations (Razavi & Miller, 1995a:13). The gender roles framework derives
from the insights of the WID approach, which places emphasis on womens access to
and control over resources. GAD examines gender relations and proposes the
redistribution of power between the sexes with a view to empowering women. In
contrast, postcolonial feminism is linked to post development theory, which raised
questions about identity. Postcolonial feminists focused on deconstruction, language
and the power of discourse. They called for listening to the ignored voices of Third
World women in order to construct strategies for improving womens lives on the basis
of actual experiences rather than assumptions (Chowdhury, 1995:33).

39
 WID and GAD are two major approaches to integrate women into development,
although they vary widely (Klenk, 2004:65). Both WID and GAD evolved in a policy
environment dominated by economic perspectives on development. Many development
agencies have adopted womens economic empowerment as their main strategy for
achieving gender equity, assuming that it will lead automatically to gender equality (El-
Bushra, 2000:56). They mostly focus on improving womens economic capacity and
their participation in the development process. Dominant international institutions
continue to concentrate on womens productive roles and intend to bring them into the
development process accordingly (Razavi & Miller, 1995b:65). Therefore, development
projects still tend to fall within a WID integrationist approach rather than the more
radical GAD perspective (Rathgeber, 1989:21). Jahan (1995:20-21) argues that
development policy objectives of various bilateral and multilateral organisations have
changed within a WID framework over the years. They initially followed an
integrationist approach but the feminist demand to transform the development agenda
slowly turned them to an agenda-setting approach. Hence, the issue of womens
empowerment found a place in agency documents. Development agencies shifted their
methodological approaches from WID to GAD but underscored the necessity of WID-
integrated activities. Many agencies and governments followed a GAD methodology for
project analysis and identification but a WID focus for project activities. Barriteau
(2000:121-123) analysed the policies of the World Bank, the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) and the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and reported
that these international development institutions were WID oriented. They emphasised
womens integration into development focusing on increasing womens economic
activity and improving their access to productive resources and the labour market.

Thus, the major players in the field of development remain fundamentally situated
within the WID paradigm. They shape national development policies, which obviously
share the same approaches as they fund only those programmes which are formulated
according to their guidelines. Therefore, both international development institutions and
national governments continue to reflect the influence of the liberal feminist
perspectives. They focus on bringing women into development within the WID
framework with a view to liberating women from their exploitative situation. This
perspective has been reinforced with the declaration of the MDGs, which focus on the
immediate- the practical and tangible. In order to promote gender equality and empower

40
women, the Declaration commits to the elimination of gender disparities in education,
which is a practical need for women. This is also a practical indicator of a shift towards
womens greater emancipation in the longer term. Although policy makers talk about
gender, it remains in theoretical discourse and WID continues to dominate development
policy formulation, which argues for meeting womens practical needs like education
and employment.

41
 Chapter III: Globalisation and Bangladesh: implications for women

Introduction

The dominant feature of the international economy in the present day world has
been the increasing interconnectedness of national economies. A growing trend of
interaction among and integration of especially economic activities of nations is
prevalent around the globe. Globalisation refers to those dimensions of the global
economy, which have been strengthened by technological improvements (Yusuf,
2003:38). At a deeper level the driving force behind this process has been the desire of
people to take advantage of the opportunities provided by interactions with other
societies through trade, migration, investment, acquisition of knowledge and
exploitation of resources (Mussa, 2003:15). Globalisation has internationalised
technology and financial capital and influenced nation-states in restructuring economic
policies, which led to trade liberalisation and removal of capital controls (Bevan &
Fosu, 2003:2). Trade liberalisation and removal of capital controls were encouraging for
the labour-intensive manufacturing industries of developed economies. Since growth in
international trade intensified inter-capitalist competition and acute labour crisis in
industrialised countries affected these industries the most, they utilised the opportunities
afforded by globalisation to their own best advantage and moved to developing
countries in a quest for cheap labour and became multinational in their operation (Lim,
1983:71-72, 1997:216-217). In the era of globalisation, world market factories became
increasingly dominant in production and trade (Yusuf, 2003:36) and generated huge
employment opportunities in developing countries, where they largely employed
women. The numbers of working women grew rapidly relative to men and this trend of
the labour process is termed feminisation of labour (Standing, 1989:1080), which is
one of the manifestations of globalisation.

The focus of this chapter is on the gendered impacts of globalisation and its
implications for women. The first section, however, gives an overview of globalisation
with reference to development, given that both these aspects are interlinked. The second
section discusses the emergence of world market factories in the process of
globalisation and its role in the global economy with its contributions in restructuring
the labour process worldwide. The chapter then concentrates on womens increasing
participation in the labour force, while the bulk of the chapter then deals with policy

42
interventions in Bangladesh in relation to womens development. It also gives a glimpse
of the position and condition of women in Bangladeshi society. The final section of the
chapter analyses previous research findings with regard to the implication of
employment in waged labour market for women.

Development and globalisation

Dominant development policy initiatives during the postcolonial epoch

emphasised economic growth and planners identified industrialisation as a means and
development as an end. The role of investment in industrialisation has always been seen
as the crucial factor in economic development. In the context of Keynesian policies the
immediate post-war development thinking saw state planning as the way forward for the
developing countries in order to transform traditional society into a modern industrial
economy (Milward, 2003:128). Keynes argued that the key to growth was investment,
which would have a positive effect on job creation and the further generation of wealth.
Keynes saw a key role for the government to promote investment through monetary
policies and expenditure in attaining economic growth (Willis, 2005:35). Keyness
ideas regarding government role were applied in the post-War period of development
interventions in Third World countries. As noted in the previous chapter, since these
countries lacked resources for investment and economic growth, development strategies
expected large transfers of money, technology and expertise from economically
advanced states to fill the gaps and help the financing of the process of Third World
development. The resources were usually transferred from one government to another as
the Keynesian approach was based on government intervention at a national level and
foreign assistance in terms of aid on an international scale (op cit.:47).

Thus, development initiatives in the 1950s and 1960s were mostly government led
and dependant on foreign assistance. However, towards the end of the 1960s optimism
for growth in developing countries gradually became dampened. Moreover, economies
throughout the world experienced slowing rates of growth in the 1970s. In particular
developing nations were rapidly losing export markets with falling commodity prices.
Given this situation, neoliberal economists during that time began to argue that
government intervention in the economy was leading to inefficiency and the best way to
achieve economic growth would be reliance on market forces and private enterprises

43
(McGrew, 2000:349). They argued for state withdrawal from the economic sphere and
the promotion of market mechanisms as the main engine of growth and development.
Accordingly, attempts were made to reduce the role of the state in the economy placing
greater reliance on the free play of market forces. The World Bank and IMF urged
developing nations to adopt structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), which
encouraged privatisation and liberalisation policies along with opening up the national
economy to foreign investment (Hoogvelt, 1997:88). In fact, SAPs have played
instrumental roles in many developing countries in establishing more open and
globalised economies because the implementation of these programmes is often tied to
international loans to relieve debt (Beneria, et al. 2000:vii). These efforts led to the
interconnectedness of the global economy, which is labelled globalisation. In economic
terms globalisation is the process of the widening of the markets for consumption,
investment and production on a global scale and the expansion of social relations and
social activities across traditional borders and regions (Milward, 2003:11). This process
gained unprecedented momentum in its extension and depth from the 1970s with the
development of technologies of transport and communications of corporate organisation
and of the production process (Guinness, 2003:6). Technological development rapidly
reduced transport and communication costs and removed the natural barriers of time and
space that separated national markets. The steady decline in economic distance between
nations stimulated closer integration between markets, producers, suppliers and
consumers. Another driving force of globalisation is trade liberalisation, which has been
a worldwide trend and almost all countries have lowered barriers to foreign ideas,
capital and trade. The forces of globalisation thus have shaped the direction of national
economies and policy processes. The rise of export flows related to foreign direct
investment has also influenced global integration. The liberalisation of exchange
regulations in many developing countries has facilitated the inflow of foreign direct
investment increasing integration of these countries into the international economy
(Cook & Kirkpatrick, 1997:57-59). Since the mid 1970s, international capital flows
have increased both among industrial countries and with developing countries (Mussa,
2003:23; Yusuf, 2003:45).

The changes in the global economic situation stated above have played a crucial
role in the process of globalisation, which implies an intensification of international
exchange and growing links among national economies resulting in increasing flows of

44
goods and services across economies. The integration of national and regional
economies into the global economy is one of the dimensions of globalisation, which
also denotes social, political and cultural intensification. Nevertheless, economic aspects
of globalisation gained focus, which reflects the extraordinary concentration of
international trade, investment and financial flows (Pearson, 2000b:10). Economic
globalisation has changed the structure of international trade. The reduction of trade
barriers has increased the output of capital-intensive goods for export and has reduced
the production of labour-intensive goods in developed countries. The opposite has
happened in developing countries, which expanded exports of labour-intensive
manufacture and has produced fewer capital-intensive import substitutes (Cook &
Kirkpatrick, 1997:60). The process of globalisation has moved world market factories
into the centre stage of the global economy and they dominate worldwide investment,
production, trade and distribution strategies across nation-states. These factories are
global companies, which take the entire world as their market, establish subsidiaries
abroad, produce goods and services with the explicit purpose of export and make
decisions in terms of what is best for the corporation as a whole on an international
basis (Adam, 1975:90). They utilise national labour forces for international market
oriented production.

Emergence of world market factories

Globalisation is related to the process of binding complex geographies and

linking producers and consumers across spatial scales. As such, events, decisions and
activities in one part of the world rapidly influence quite distant parts of the globe. This
process is narrowing the consumption differences around the world as well. All these
are different dimensions of the interconnected nature of global economies, where
widening of markets and the expansion of production worldwide are of immense
importance and world market factories are playing the key role in this process
worldwide (Milward, 2003:33). These factories are also termed multinational or
transnational corporations (MNC/TNC); the terms are used interchangeably in this
presentation. The post-World War-II era of global relationships associated with the
internationalisation of nearly all economies saw the emergence of a new international
division of labour with the redistribution of manufacturing and service industries. This
new division has involved a dramatic shift of production from developed to the

45
developing countries. It is linked to technological advances, which have enabled
fragmentation of production, shifting labour-intensive activities to the developing areas,
while financial matters and specialist management have stayed in developed countries.
Transnational corporations are working as the driving force in the division of labour that
has created a world market for labour and a world market for production sites.
Governments of developing countries provide suitable incentives to them to attract
inward investment. They establish export processing zones, which are designed to
attract MNCs to invest in export production with a package of incentives, which
includes the duty free import of raw materials and capital equipment, company tax
concessions, simplified customs procedures and the provision of infrastructure (Potter et
al. 1999:83). Export processing zones are production sites for industrial utilisation of
labour power. A variety of designations such as export processing zone, free export
zone, free trade zone, free industrial zone, special economic zone and the like are
used to denote the new enclave production sites (Frobel et al.1980:302). The term
export processing zone, which is used in this study, refers to production sites, where
goods and services are produced for global market by world market factories.

The growth of world market factories is one of the most revolutionary phenomena
in the development of the world economy during the last century. These are actually the
extended wings of large multinational corporations that relocated their production to
developing countries to ensure continued profitability, new product lines, new markets,
new investment outlets and above all new ways to reduce production costs (McEwan,
1978 cited in Tiano, 1994:11). World market factories and export processing zones
(EPZs) became new elements in the new international division of labour. These
factories are often although not always situated within EPZs. In the modern
international economy these are institutions of increasing importance. Very few nations
are now isolated from some involvement with world market factories (Parry, 1980:1). In
practice, the largest MNCs orchestrate an ensemble of investments scattered across
dozens of countries. Tied together by vast communications webs these firms perform
various corporate functions such as research and development, production, and
marketing around the globe. They deal with skills and wage rates of local labour, the tax
and regulatory policies of governments, the availability of needed infrastructure and the
supply of natural resources. The sheer size of many MNCs combined with their
economic efficiency and international mobility not only provides them with a key place

46
in the world economy but also endows them with considerable political power and
influence. Globalisation brought about changes in the power relationship between state
and MNCs, where governments as a group have lost bargaining power to the
multinationals (Cook & Kirkpatrick, 1997:56). They have the ability to manipulate
transfer prices and to move their productive facilities to another country, which limits
governments ability to tax them (Heymer, 1975:54; Frobel et al. 1980:295).

The significance of these corporations in the world economy is viewed in both

quantitative and qualitative ways. Quantitative significance highlights the size of such
corporations and their weight in such areas as world production, foreign investment,
technology creation, trade, etc. Qualitative significance looks at the growth of these
corporations and highlights their key tendencies in the capitalist system. In terms of size
the largest MNCs have sales, which exceed the total gross domestic product of most
Third World countries and they account for an important share of world production and
control a major part of all foreign direct investment (Jenkins, 1987:8). These foreign
investors never invest in the production of the most needed things, such as cheap food,
clean water or simple housing. Foreign investment goes mostly into producing goods to
export to rich countries. Historically many of the major exports of the Third World have
been produced by world market factories (op cit.:11). Jenkins argues that these factories
also dominate the marketing of those goods. As for example, the world coffee market is
mostly controlled by four companies: Philip Morris, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble and
Sarah Lee. These large corporations reap the majority of the benefits of world coffee
production.

A typical MNC is NIKE. Its headquarters are in the United States and its entire
manufacturing process is carried out through independent subcontracting in Third
World countries. The NIKE brand is globally renowned and products can be bought in
across countries. All financial decisions are carried out in the USA, while much of the
production often takes place in developing countries, which generally welcome the
penetration of such companies. Their movement in these countries is accelerated by an
attractive investment climate made by government policies. Developing nations attract
multinational subsidiary operations due to a number of such factors as cheap labour,
low taxation and less vigilance concerning workers rights and environmental protection.
A number of governments in the Third World have passed laws which restricted the

47
formation of organisation and thus bargaining power of the employees. Moreover, they
are rarely made to contribute to the social security net, for example, welfare,
employment, insurance, etc. One of the distinctive features of most Third World
countries is a large supply of unorganised labour. MNCs utilise this labour-power for
world market oriented production (Frobel et al. 1980:296-297).

The development of world market factories began in the 1950s and 1960s. During
that time the MNCs were relocating their manufacturing industries from developed to
developing countries. This was a response to the new international division of labour
and the pattern of trade in manufacturing. Some other important factors also account for
this rush. First, Japan emerged as a major industrial power in the world economy in the
1960s and entered into the western consumer markets very rapidly and with great
success. The ascendance of Japan as a major industrial power changed the global trade
scenario. American and European manufacturers were falling behind in the competitive
race and losing ground to Japanese firms. In such a situation, these manufacturers began
to relocate their industries in developing countries to reduce production costs to
compete with the Japanese (Heymer, 1975:47). Secondly, the global economy in the
1970s became far more open to internationally competitive trade due to the
development of communications technology. A number of countries in the developing
world during that time emerged as producers of exports and created global challenges to
large manufacturers of the industrialised world (Standing, 1989:1077). A third factor
was the tight domestic labour market in the developed countries during the 1960s and
early 1970s. Many companies at that time were facing labour crises in those countries.
High labour costs, low unemployment rates and chronic labour shortages affected
labour-intensive manufacturing industries. Both labour crises and high labour costs
increased their production costs. This resulted in losing their competitive advantage in
international trade in textiles, garments, shoes, toys and electronic assembly. These
labour-intensive industries then began to relocate their manufacturing plants to
developing countries as they needed available labour force at a cheaper price (Lim,
1983:71, 1997:217). Thus, the world market factories emerged in the global scenario.

This process of relocation of particularly, labour intensive production has been a

trend of the contemporary world economy. MNCs relocated their labour-intensive
production establishments to developing countries that had abundant supplies of labour

48
with high unemployment rates and low wages (Frobel, et al., 1980:341). The
implementation of structural adjustment programmes in these countries in the wake of
the debt crisis of the 1970s facilitated this process. The aim of adjustment was to
replace the post-war state-led development paradigm by promoting open and free
competitive market economies. The structural adjustment development strategy
emphasised privatisation and encouraged foreign direct investment and the liberalisation
of foreign trade (Hoogvelt, 1997:168; Power, 2003:158). The proactive investment
promotion measures of adjustment programmes in developing countries were
favourable to MNCs. Governments created EPZs with the provision of necessary
infrastructures and inexpensive electricity along with tax exemptions and duty free
import facilities. Almost all the EPZs operating in developing countries provide all
these facilities and various financial incentives to attract foreign capital (Frobel et al.
1980:297). Multinational corporations provide 80% of foreign direct investment in
developing countries and directly employ nearly 50 million people in export processing
zones throughout the world (Panos, 1999 cited in Pearson, 2000b:11). Low costs and
the availability of a huge source of cheap labour in developing countries is the main
attraction for them to shift production to export processing zones in these countries. The
overwhelming majority of the workers they employ are women aged between sixteen
and twenty-five years (Frobel et al., 1980:344).

Feminisation of labour and labour force feminisation

Global economic restructuring during the 1970s was marked by the rejection of
import substitution industrialisation oriented development strategy and the growth of
EPZs in developing countries, since planners articulated that an export-oriented
development strategy could have favourable effects on economic growth. The focus on
export-led development in Third World countries has had a profound impact on the
working lives of women as the internationalisation of capital and production
significantly changed the global labour process and brought a rapid growth in female
employment (Nisonoff, 1997:178). EPZs have created millions of jobs globally and a
major proportion, around three quarters of all workers, in export manufacturing sectors
in developing countries are women (Standing, 1989:1080). MNCs play the key role in
this job creation with their transfer of labour-intensive production processes to
developing areas, where workers are cheap. Frobel et al. (1980:341) argues that the

49
existence of a large unemployed labour force and acute poverty in Third World
countries force the unemployed to work at any wage. Wages are kept down through
competition as a permanent pool of labour exists in the market and is desperately
seeking work (Wright, 2000:233). Governments of these countries, moreover, welcome
the arrival of MNCs in the hope of creating employment opportunity for huge numbers
of unemployed people (Chant, 1989:171). Multinational corporations or their
subsidiaries mainly produce such consumer goods as textiles, garments, sportswear,
toys, and electronics and provide such services as data entry, and call centres. Some
factories producing final consumer goods only assemble different parts, while some
factories apply modern production technology, which combines both automated and
labour-intensive production processes. Accordingly, the structure of production in EPZs
is mainly characterised by a product and process technology requiring mostly unskilled
or semi-skilled labour (Frobel et al., 1980:328; Elson & Pearson, 1981b:20; 1997:191),
where a large share of the operating budget involves labour-costs. MNCs transfer
unskilled or semi-skilled labour intensive jobs to EPZs to take advantage of low-cost
labour in order to reduce production costs and improve their competitive position in the
world market. In order to reduce costs, they have made these jobs flexible in nature,
which has reduced workers job rights. Due to the flexible nature of jobs, it is easier for
employers to dismiss employees or reduce the size of the labour force (Standing,
1989:1078). Employers prefer and employ women on a large scale in these low paid
flexible jobs, in view of the fact that they are perceived to be cheaper to employ
(Beneria, 2000:xii).

Multinational export-oriented enterprises extensively employ women in their

factories and womens participation in wage employment increased in the 1980s and
1990s relative to men. The global labour force has become more female and an ILO
report shows that in 2003 1.1 billion of the worlds 2.8 billion workers, or 40% were
women which is 200 million higher than that of 1993 (International Labour
Organisation, 2004b). Razavi (2003:8) argues that a greater demand for women workers
in garments, footwear and electronic products has caused the increase in womens
labour force participation. The rationale for employing women on a large scale in these
labour intensive export sectors is mainly economic. The sexual division of labour
confines women to household based activities, which are unpaid and socially
undervalued. The unpaid nature of their housework lowers the value of their labour

50
power. Moreover, their confinement in household activities limits their employment
opportunity, making their status inferior or secondary to mens in the capitalist waged
labour market and MNCs take advantage of their inferior status. Women in developing
countries are perceived to be a potential industrial reserve army who can be hired in a
boom production period and fired when a crisis sets in. They are universally defined as
housewives and their universal identity as housewives gives employers the
opportunity to cheapen their labour (Mackintosh, 1981:7; Thomsen, 1981:52; Mies,
1986:116).

Female employment in labour-intensive operations like garment production is

more profitable as the unit costs of production is lower with female workers, since they
can be paid less because of their inferior status in the labour market. Further, women are
considered to have nimble fingers. Nonetheless, needlework requires training, which
they receive mostly at an early age from other females, as it is classified as female work
done at domestic level. Training in needlework is socially invisible and due to social
invisibility it lacks social recognition. Hence, needlework is identified as unskilled or
semi-skilled although industrial sewing closely resembles domestic sewing and teaching
girls industrial garment making costs employers less. The tasks performed in export-led
industries are tedious, repetitious and monotonous ones to which women are considered
naturally more suited, since the tasks they do at the household level are of the same
nature. Explicit biological essentialism is brought into play in discourses that perpetuate
notions that women are perceived as naturally more docile and willing to accept tough
work disciplines. They are considered to be more obedient and supposedly willing to
accept authority, moreover, less likely to become involved in labour conflicts (Elson &
Pearson, 1981b:22-24, 1997:192-193; Chant, 1989:172). Therefore, the labour force of
export-led industries is predominantly female as the jobs to be done here are womens
work. Womens increased participation in the labour force is captured by the phrase
feminisation of labour force which also denotes the deteriorating conditions of labour
market (Razavi, 2003:12). Export-oriented development strategies, however, stimulated
these new economic realities in developing countries, where the dominant feature is
integration of women into development processes on a large scale. Growth in
international trade has been favourable to womens integration into paid employment,
since it increasingly absorbed women into the manufacturing sectors of developing
countries (Joekes, 1995:ii). This has brought about profound changes in the labour

51
market around the world. Labour force has been feminised, whilst labour market
conditions for both men and women have deteriorated and became precarious (Standing,
1989:1079; Razavi, 2003:13). However, in Bangladesh, womens integration into
development through participation in waged employment began in 1982 when the
government formulated the New Industrial Policy (NIP), which aimed at export-
oriented industrialisation. Prior to this time, Bangladeshi women had little visibility in
the public sphere with regard to employment in the formal sector of the economy in
particular, because of social constraints due to the persistent influence of patriarchy and
purdah, which limited employment opportunities for them (Mahmud, 1997:236). The
following section gives a brief overview about the position and condition of women in
Bangladeshi society.

Women in Bangladesh: relations of gender and power

Bangladesh is predominantly a Muslim country belonging to what has been

defined as classic patriarchy (Kandiyoti, 1988) although it is naive to articulate that all
Bangladeshi women experience patriarchal relations exactly the same way but rather
their lived experiences relate to their class, location, education etc. However,
traditionally society considers that women must be associated with men and as such,
their life is centred on father, husband and son. The honour of the family is believed to
lie in purity in female sexuality and men are entrusted with the role of protectors. The
institution of purdah is an arrangement to enforce female virtue- premarital chastity and
post-marital fidelity. Purdah concurrently limits womens interaction with men beyond
the immediate family and creates a gendered segregation of spheres. It confines women
to the private sphere, restricting their visibility in the public (male) sphere and affects
womens personal autonomy. Purdah also prescribes appropriate behaviour for women
enjoining them to be modest, submissive and speak in a low voice so that their words do
not reach male ears outside the household. In addition, purdah and patriarchy govern
womens economic mobility. Therefore, womens scope of participation in waged work
is limited and they remain dependent on men for their economic needs. Patriarchy
describes a distribution of power and resources within the family along gender lines and
men maintain power and control resources, which make women subordinate to men
(Cain, Khanam & Nahar, 1979; Kabeer, 1988).

52
 The separation of spheres introduces a sexual division of labour in society. Since
women are confined in the private sphere, they perform all reproductive tasks at
household level, while men participate in productive activities beyond the homestead.
Women also participate in productive tasks that take place within the home compound
but their participation in waged employment has been discouraged, since it is perceived
to be a threat to family or more specifically male honour. Men cultivate in the field and
women process crops at household level. Yet, men mediate all market transactions,
since the market is a male place and as such, they have access to cash resources, which
women lack. Men purchase all household needs, although women set the requirements
and maintain the household. Women also engage in some purchases in their day-to-day
household management, despite the fact that they often do not possess any cash. They
make transactions with rice and do a little shopping from petty traders at village level
(White, 1992).

Marriage is an important social institution in Bangladesh as elsewhere in the

world. Association between adult women and men is not permissible in Bangladeshi
society without marriage, as elsewhere in the Muslim world. Women depend on their
male household members for arranging their weddings along with finding suitable
spouses. A girl leaves her natal family because of marriage and goes to her husbands
household, where she is subordinate to her mother-in-law as well as senior sisters-in-
law. Her status in the family improves with the birth of children, especially sons, since
descent in Bangladesh is organised along patrilineal lines. Her status in the family
improves further when her sons marry. She attains the ability to gain the position of
authority - open to most women - mother-in-law (Cain, Khanam & Nahar, 1979;
Kabeer, 1988; Feldman, 1992; White, 1992).

Gender & development policy initiatives in Bangladesh

Analysing the position of women in Bangladeshi society Cain, Khanam & Nahar
(1979: 434) concluded that the systematic nature of patriarchy suggested that solutions
to the problem of womens vulnerability and lack of income earning opportunity would
not be easily reached. However, in a very short span of time, since they made their
comments about Bangladeshi women, the situation started changing. The idealised
picture of women in Bangladesh as cherished and protected daughters/wives/mothers

53
has been challenged although not to a great extent, because of a few policy initiatives of
the government of Bangladesh. Womens lack of opportunities in the waged labour
market and global calls for their integration into development processes inspired the
government to adopt favourable policy interventions in line with the dominant
development paradigm.

The integration of women into development processes has both socio-economic

and political considerations. The Constitution of Bangladesh upholds the necessity of
equal opportunities between women and men. Nonetheless, they are traditionally in a
subservient position in the country and as such the constitution of Bangladesh declares
that [s]teps shall be taken to ensure participation of women in all aspects of national
life (Constitution of Bangladesh, 2004) and this is one of the fundamental principles of
the State policy. The inclusion of the above principle illustrates that women in
Bangladesh are not at an equal position to men in society, they do not have equal
participation in all spheres of national life and therefore some efforts are needed at
national level to tackle this disparity. The Constitution upholds the need for state
intervention and sanctions positive measures for women in particular. Traditional socio-
cultural practice legitimated the position of Bangladeshi women outside the labour
market and discouraged their participation in public affairs. Nevertheless, the situation
is now changing slowly due to some positive interventions that the government has
adopted over the last three decades. Women have been more politically active in the
country. A quota has ensured womens presence in the local government and National
Parliament. Women render significant contributions during election campaigns by
taking part in organising public meetings, processions, and rallies. The trend of
exercising voting rights in women has also increased. During the general elections of
1991, 1996 and 2002 and local level elections in 1993, 1997 and 2002, the level of
enthusiasm among women to exercise their voting rights was very encouraging. The
government of Bangladesh also encourage women to participate in elections. There are
seats reserved for them in both local government and the National Parliament. In 1997
the government of Bangladesh had enacted a law for direct elections to reserve seats for
women in local government. In the early 2004 the government increased the number of
seats in the National Parliament reserved for women from 30 to 45 (Constitution of
Bangladesh, 2004). Besides, according to Article 65 (3), Bangladeshi women can
contest any of the general seats at both local and national elections.

54
 Bangladesh is a country where Muslims constitute around 85% of the total
population and Hindus are the other significant religious group with around 8%. The
Bangladeshis developed a culture which has absorbed Muslim religious beliefs and is
tempered strongly by some other non-Islamic elements. Muslim values in the
subcontinent and especially in Bangladesh, have been considerably influenced by
Hindu-Buddhist religious practices and medieval Sufism, which made Islamic culture in
Bangladesh soften and more flexible than it is in Pakistan or Middle East (Feldman,
1992:119; Wright, 2000:232). Womens access to the labour market is not regarded as
an entirely appropriate function for women in Bangladesh, irrespective of their religious
identity. Nevertheless, Bangladeshi women have been visible in the labour process since
the post-independence period. Poor and landless women participated in a government-
supported Food for Work programme, educated young women found employment
opportunities in the rural health and family planning sector and expanded educational
sector but they maintained purdah as best they could (Feldman, 1992:120). Since the
1980s employment opportunities have been stronger for them than for men due to the
growth of the export garment industry in the country. In addition to merit the
government policy reserves a 10% quota for women in gazetted posts, 15% for non-
gazetted posts while 60% posts of primary school teachers for women (Khan, 2008:9).
Besides, programmes extending micro-credit to large numbers of rural women also have
contributed to greater access for them to economic resources (Pearson, 2000:396).
Womens participation in both local and national level elections, their employment in
both formal and informal sector establishments, development of their economic power
etc. reflect broader movements in society in terms of womens emancipation. During the
1990s the government took necessary policy initiatives, which introduced womens
recruitment in the defence services. Although the government policy sanctioned 10%
reserved quota for women, they were barred from defence services. However, this bar
was lifted in the early 1990s and recruitment of females in the Army Cadet Core is
considered to be a big breakthrough in gender equity in Bangladesh (Hossain et al.
2002:4). All these were the direct outcomes of several noteworthy efforts undertaken by
the Government to integrate womens issues into the broader policy and planning
framework. These include a) formulation of the Fifth Five-year Plan (1997-2002)
adopting the mainstreaming of a womens development approach; b) declaration of
the National Policy for the Advancement of Women; and c) adoption of the National
Action Plan (NAP) for the advancement of women.

55
 Bangladesh is one of the few countries to have a separate Ministry of Womens
Affairs. In 1978 the government established the Ministry of Women and Childrens
Affairs (MWCA), which works as the focal ministry for the advancement of women in
the country. In relation to womens issues, it has two implementing agencies: the
Directorate of Womens Affairs (DWA) and Jatiya Mahila Sangstha (National
Womens Organisation). As part of the national womens machinery, MWCA is
mandated to act as the central motivating force on issues of womens equality and
development and to promote a broader and more consistent response by all government
agencies to the needs and priorities of women. It formulated the NAP and National
Policy for the Advancement of Women. The NAP emphasises the strategy of
mainstreaming womens development in all government policies and programmes by
sectoral ministries and agencies. As the national machinery, MWCA is responsible for
facilitating the mainstreaming of a gender equality perspective in all policy areas. The
Government in 1997 approved the NAP, which was chalked out with the following
broad goals:

a) to make women's development an integral part of the national

development programme;
b) to establish women as equal partners in development with equal roles in
policy and decision-making in the family, community and nation at large;
c) to remove legal, economic, political or cultural barriers that prevent the
exercise of equal rights by undertaking policy reforms and strong
affirmative actions;
d) to raise/create public awareness about women's differential needs,
interests and priorities and increase commitment to bring about
improvements in women's position and condition.

The National Action Plan includes the elimination of gender disparity, expansion
of non-formal education and the undertaking of social mobilisation programmes. In
relation to women's employment, the Plan stresses the need to improve women's
working conditions. This includes increasing the scope of maternity leave, more crches
and day care centres, adequate numbers of separate toilet facilities, better transport
facilities, especially for night work and accommodation facilities for out of station work
placements. The NAP also proposes the development of professionally elaborated

56
gender sensitive codes of conduct/ethics/self regulatory mechanisms for medical and
media professionals, with the goal of promoting greater respect for women and their
rights, monitoring action and taking internal disciplinary actions against violations of
the agreed codes of conduct.

The government of Bangladesh declared the National Policy for the Advancement
of Women in the country on International Womens Day on 8 March 1997. The
objectives of the National Policy are comprehensive in scope and rest on the basic
commitment to develop women as a human resource, establish women's human rights,
eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and girls and recognise women's
contribution in the social and economic spheres. Specific to employment, the plan
includes the following objectives for ending women's economic inequality:

a) to ensure equal rights of women on land, capital and technology as well

as on all economic resources;
b) to reduce the gap between women and men regarding availability of
necessary information, skills and knowledge to benefit from economic
opportunities;
c) visualisation and recognition of the economic activities of women;
d) ensuring equal participation of women and men in professional
occupations.

Increasing womens employment opportunity is one of the commitments of the

government of Bangladesh. National Development Plans since 1985 have focused on
expanding opportunities for specialised training, skill development and entrepreneurship
development programmes for women and increasing opportunities for income
generation, access to institutional credit and institutional capacity-building for the
promotion of womens participation in bottom-up planning. Promoting gender equality,
and "realising the constitutional goal of equality between all citizens - women and
men", was a major aim of the Fifth Five-year Development Plan (1997-2002). The
Macro Chapter on Womens Development in the Fifth Five-year Plan endorsed
mainstreaming as the strategy for womens development. The plan recognised the roles
of all sectors in mainstreaming womens development and emphasised the policy and
advocacy roles of MWCA. The Macro and Micro Chapters of the Plan on Womens

57
Development stressed the importance of implementing the National Policy and the NAP
for the Advancement of Women and accordingly focussed on mainstreaming gender in
all levels of the governments development work. Ministries were made responsible for
implementing gender concerns within their respective sectors. With regard to womens
development, the following were the broad goals and objectives as was mentioned in
the Micro Chapter of the Fifth Five-year Plan:

a) undertaking necessary steps to implement the Convention on the

Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW);
b) ensuring womens legal rights in property, inheritance and related laws;
c) increasing womens participation in decision making at both the national
and local level;
d) promoting economic self-reliance of women through expansion of
vocational skills training, especially in non-traditional areas, managerial
training and credit facilities;
e) developing womens entrepreneurship and create employment for women
through skills training in various trades and extensive micro-credit;
f) promoting economic self-reliance for women including access to
economic resources such as land, capital and technology;
g) mainstreaming women's concerns in agriculture and rural development,
industry and commerce and also in the informal sector;
h) ensuring the visibility and recognition of women's work and to reduce the
gender gap in access to information, skill and knowledge about economic
opportunities; and,
i) raising the rate of female participation in the active labour force
(employed) to bring it at par with men; and
j) changing negative cultural values against women.

With regard to the monitoring of the implementation of various policies,

programmes and laws undertaken by the government, the National Council for
Women's Development (NCWD) and the Inter-ministerial Co-ordination and Evaluation
Committee provide institutional mechanisms through which individuals and various
women's organisations can participate. The NCWD, established in 1995, is composed of
44 members including the Prime Minister (Chairperson) to implement and review socio-

58
economic development policies to reduce existing gender gaps and enhance womens
status. In order to make the NCWD effective, a monitoring and evaluation committee
has been set up headed by the Minister of MWCA. Its function is to monitor the
implementation progress of sectoral WID plans and submit quarterly reports to the
NCWD. As the highest policy making body for womens development in Bangladesh,
the NCWD provides guidance to all sectors and monitors implementation of critical
policy decisions relating to womens issues and development. Hossain et al. (2002:3)
identified the following as the significant achievements of the above stated policy
initiatives in relation to gender and development in Bangladesh:

a. The Women and Child Repression Act, 2000 has been passed for
effective handling of violence against women;
b. A multi-sectoral project for the prevention of violence against women has
been finalised and approved;
c. The government has enacted law providing the direct election of the
female members of Union Parishad (Union Council- the lowest tier of
local government) to increase womens participation in politics and
decision making;
d. A well-linked organisational structure has been established from the
national level down to the lower tiers of local government in order to
strengthen institutional mechanism and ensure effective co-ordination in
the implementation of activities for womens development;
e. Various women organisations, NGOs, private women activists, different
government organisations, United Nations agencies and other
international agencies have come forward with their own programmes to
address gender issues in Bangladesh;
f. Women have been given special preference and priority by providing
stipend for female education;
g. Support services such as Hostel facilities for working women, Day Care
Centres, shelter for oppressed women and legal aid cell etc have been
provided
h. GO-NGO collaboration has come into being in a new form where NGOs
are playing partnership roles in WID activities of the government;

59
 i. Micro credit programmes have been introduced on a comprehensive scale
and women are the target group.

The most significant achievement in relation to womens development in

Bangladesh has been the generation of employment opportunity for them. Although the
principle of gender equality is recognised in the constitution of Bangladesh, the
synthesis of traditional South Asian values and Muslim practices obstructed its
achievement of such a noble idea. However, traditional values could not prevent
leaders, such as Ziaur Rahman who eagerly sought international financial assistance for
the structuring of womens integration into development. The Ziaur Rahman
government implemented export-led growth strategies, which created a female
dominated labour force in Bangladesh, where women have traditionally been excluded
from the labour market (Feldman 1992:115). Prior to 1971 when Bangladesh was a part
of Pakistan, the private sector was regarded as the engine of development and
government gave all incentives to stimulate private sector initiatives. The policy
resulted in a wide expansion of private enterprises in Pakistan (Rahim, 1978:1186).
Immediately after independence the new government of Bangladesh adopted a large-
scale nationalisation policy and acquired 85% of private enterprises of the country
abandoned by their Pakistani owners (Islam & Quddus, 1996:168). In early 1973, the
government announced the first industrial investment policy dominated by the theme of
socialist economy. It limited private ownership expanding public ownership of the
means of production and distribution (Rahim, 1978:1182). The first government of
independent Bangladesh led by the then Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
imposed various restrictions on the growth of private industry and adopted import
substitution industrialisation for economic development of the country. Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman was killed in 1975 and the post-1975 government of Ziaur Rahman brought
about fundamental changes in the development strategy of the country with the adoption
of an export-oriented industrialisation policy. The new government followed market-
oriented strategies which implemented trade liberalisation policy as a means to attract
foreign capital and rendered various incentives to encourage foreign investors (Ahmed,
2004:36). The Industrial Policy announced in late 1975 emphasised a larger role of the
private sector and recognised the importance of both domestic and foreign private
capital in promoting economic development of Bangladesh (Rahim, 1978:1184-1185).

60
 The initiation of the New Industrial Policy (NIP) in 1982 and its revision in 1986
placed increased emphasis on private sector participation in development and export-
oriented industrialisation. The government restructured import and export policies and
initiated trade and tariff reforms to encourage increased investment in the export sector
(Government of Bangladesh, 1986:1-2). The NIP of 1982 and the revised Industrial
Policy of 1986 fundamentally were concerned with the strategy of export promotion and
considered women the most favoured workforce (Rock, 2001:29). The Industrial Policy
1991 stressed the need for accelerated development of export-oriented industry
(Government of Bangladesh, 1991:1) while Industrial Policy 1999 declared export
orientation as the dominant feature of the industrial sector of Bangladesh, where the
private sector would be the driving force. The government encouraged both foreign and
national firms to produce for international markets and emphasised employment
generation for women (Government of Bangladesh, 1999:1-2). The government of
Bangladesh has established export processing zones to attract private investors and to
assist in the setting up of export-oriented industries in the country. Essential
infrastructural facilities like warehouses, communication, water supply, electricity, gas
etc. are available in these zones. Besides, the following facilities and incentives are
provided to the industries situated in these zones (Bangladesh Export Processing Zones
Authority, 2007):

a. Income tax exemption for ten years and proportional income tax rebate
between 30 and 100 per cent on export earnings after this period;
b. Duty free import of raw material, machinery, construction materials and
other materials used in manufacturing process;
c. Income tax exemption subject to existing conditions on salaries of foreign
executives and technicians for three years;
d. Tax exemption on interest of foreign loans;
e. Tax exemption on royalties, technical know-how and technical assistance
fees;
f. Tax exemption on the profits on accounts of transfer of shares by foreign
companies;
g. Reallocation of running manufacturing units from abroad to EPZ;
h. Export linkage materials required for production of goods to be exported,
will be allowed to be exported through back-to-back LC by recognised

61
 export oriented industries which operates through bonded warehouse
facilities to the interior of the country; and
i. Offshore banking facilities.

Throughout Bangladesh there are export-oriented bonded warehouses outside the

export processing zones, which are established under EPZ-like conditions beyond any
enclave. Both export processing zones and export-oriented bonded warehouses in the
country have generated job opportunities for around 3.5 million people and 85 per cent
of the total employed in this sector is women (Boyenge, 2007:8). Export-oriented
industrialisation in Bangladesh is playing an important role in increasing female
employment which provides women with the opportunity to contribute to the
development of the country. Their employment in the export sector links them to the
global economy as well.

The political economy of Bangladesh in the period following the 1980s global
economic crisis has been restructured to better adapt to the states need to maintain
international credit, to earn foreign exchange and to respond to the interests of
multinational corporations in their search for cheap sources of labour. Both
multinational corporations and national policy facilitate the interest of the private sector
for the implementation of an export-led growth strategy. Bangladeshi investors quickly
responded to support export processing industrialisation and the country experienced a
rapid growth in garments and apparel manufacturing sector which restructured the
labour process in Bangladesh (Feldman, 1992:113, 115). Labour costs in Bangladesh
are cheap on a world scale and womens labour is cheaper than that of men. Moreover,
women here often do not ask questions about pay and working conditions (Wahra &
Rahman, 1995:55) which relates to naturalising discourse as discussed in chapter VI.
Hence, export-oriented industries in the country became female dominated as elsewhere
in the world. The 1980s and 1990s saw tremendous expansion in opportunities for
womens employment in the ready-made garments industry in Bangladesh where more
than 2 million women are currently working (Human Development Resource Centre,
2008).

Employment in garment factories enabled large numbers of Bangladeshi women

to participate in income generating activities in the formal sector. Microcredit

62
programmes are also being used to target especially women to involve them in income
generating activities (Khandker, Samad & Khan, 1998:97). Credit provision for women
is seen as a critical input for increasing womens employment in small-scale enterprises.
In most cases the loans are used for homestead based self-employment activities such as
paddy processing, poultry and livestock, small trade etc. The inclusion of women in
rural credit and income generating programmes was a response to increasing pressure
from promoters of gender-sensitive development policy in Bangladeshs domestic
development community and its foreign aid donors (Goetz & Sen Gupta, 1996:46).
Microcredit or extension of small amounts of collateral free institutional loans to
individuals as members of groups for their self-employment and income generation is a
Grameen Bank innovation while many other government (GO) and non-government
organisations (NGOs) for instance, Bangladesh Rural Development Board (GO) and
Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (NGO) have been remarkably successful in
providing financial services to poor rural women on a large scale. Although microcredit
was originally extended to poor rural women in order to improve their income earning
power, there has always been a general presumption that it will also empower them by
strengthening their economic roles and increasing their ability to contribute to their
families support (Osmani, 2007:696). It is argued that borrowing from a microcredit
programme such as Grameen Bank increases womens contribution to household
income, their non-land assets and labour supply to income earning activities.

Nonetheless, research on the empowerment effect of microcredit programmes has

not always supported these presumptions. Pit & Khandker (1996), Hashemi, Schuler &
Riley (1996), Kabeer (2001) claim to have found supporting evidence for the
empowering effect. Participation in microcredit programmes strengthens womens
ability to control their assets and income as well as helping them to establish an identity
outside of the family and giving them experience and self-confidence in the public
sphere (Hashemi, Schuler & Riley, 1996:650). On the other hand Goetz & Sen Gupta
(1996) and Rahman (1999) make contrary claims. They argue that women exercise little
or no control over their loans and male relatives predominantly invest a significant
portion of their borrowed resources directly even though women borrowers bear the
liability for repayment (Goetz & Sen Gupta, 1996:61; Rahman, 1999:69). Osmani
(2007:714-715) presents conflicting evidence and argue that microcredit helps
strengthen womens bargaining power although in most cases the activities financed by

63
credit brought to the household by women are performed by men since cultural
inhibitions prevent women from undertaking such activities as fishing, petty trading,
vending etc. while even where women are directly involved in credit financed activities
like poultry raising, rice husking etc., they often have to depend on their male relatives
for marketing their products. Osmani argues that access to credit cannot improve
womens bargaining power to a great extent since patriarchal societal norms continue to
impose socio-cultural constraints on womens autonomy. However, microcredit
programmes are viewed as a way to enhance income and employment opportunity for
women who can be self-employed in a variety of home-stead based informal activities.

The implications of waged employment for women

Whilst participation in microcredit programmes has given women the opportunity

of becoming self-employed in microcredit financed small enterprises, export-oriented
industrialisation approaches to development have provided them with the opportunity of
employment in the manufacturing sector. Womens employment in the formal labour
market is the manifestation of their integration into development processes. Their
participation in waged labour has significantly increased in developing countries over
the last couple of decades due to economic globalisation, where world market factories
are playing the dominant role. Nevertheless, there is no single meaning of economic
globalisation for womens work. There is a variety of opinion about the extent to which
paid employment may be regarded as either exploitative or emancipating. As I outline
below, it results in an ongoing debate about the implications of employment
opportunities for women.

Employment opportunities provide women with economic resources and it is

argued that there is a linkage between paid employment and power (Bhachu, 1988; Pahl,
1989). Earning a steady income empowers women and their role in family and
community decisions is enhanced as a consequence of having paid work. Referring to
other research, Meyer (2006) argues that paid work decreases womens financial
dependence on men and increases their sense of self-worth as well as class
consciousness, which leads to more equitable patterns of resource sharing and decision
making. However, Elson and Pearson (1981a, 1981b and 1997) argue that there is
considerable empirical evidence that their wages do not confer greater status or decision

64
making power on women even though they may be the chief source of family income.
Frobel et al. (1980) argue that womens employment in export-oriented industries is
based on the super-exploitation of the labour force. They maintain that working
conditions in these factories are very poor, while jobs are very low paid. The wages
workers receive in waged employment are often insufficient to cover the reproduction
costs of the work force. Drawing on her own research in Java, Indonesia, Wolf (1990a)
also articulates the super-exploitation hypothesis and argues that although factory work
provides women with cash resources, these are very inadequate to meet the subsistence
needs of one person and workers partly rely on their parents for their economic
wellbeing. Studying the physical conditions and work environment in Mexicos
Maquiladora industry, Butler & Teagarden (1993) report that the physical conditions of
factories are very poor. They are usually inadequately ventilated and badly lit. Safety
procedures are also inadequate. Factory working hours are very long, production targets
are very high and workers have few rest periods inside factories. They also tend to
suffer from various health problems such as gastrointestinal problem, respiratory
problem etc. because of their factory job.

Lim (1983, 1997) on the other hand, argues that the availability of jobs for
virtually any wage and regardless of the working conditions allows women to leave the
confines of the home. They gain the opportunity to avoid early marriage and early child
bearing. Employment increases their incomes and consumption levels. Their mobility is
improved and individual choice is expanded. Moreover, they can exercise personal
independence. Hence, waged employment is preferable for many women to the
alternatives of staying at home, early marriage and child bearing, domestic service, or
unemployment. Employment provides them with at least a partial liberation from the
confines and dictates of traditional patriarchal social relations and they can exercise
their personal independence (Lim, 1983:83, 1997:225). Bandarage (1984:503), however,
claims that this independence has a negative impact. Employment in export
manufacturing is unstable in nature and workers gain no marketable skills. Pregnancy,
failure in meeting time-bound productivity, ill health due to job etc. are common
grounds for dismissal. When women lose their job it is not unusual that their families
refuse to accept them and men refuse to marry them because of their independence. This
situation forces at least some of them into prostitution. Elson and Pearson (1981a,
1981b and 1997) also argue that jobs in world market factories are unstable in nature

65
and management prefers young women. As such, when it is necessary to retrench the
labour force, women exceeding the age of twenty are first dismissed. They also contend
that losing a job may put women into prostitution. Furthermore, they assert, factory
work has the tendency to intensify the existing forms of gender subordination, to
decompose existing forms of gender subordination and to recompose new forms of
gender subordination. Wolf (1990a) demonstrates that Taiwanese women experience the
intensification of gender subordination and their income is appropriated by their parents
for the benefit of their brothers until they marry. Taiwanese daughters are forced to quit
school and take jobs to support their parents or subsidise the educational expenses of
their brothers. Greenhalgh (1985) also reports similar findings from her research in the
Chinese context. Work in world market factories is organised through a formal
hierarchy and women are positioned at the bottom. They are controlled by different
levels of usually male bosses who exercise despotic labour mechanism on the factory
floors. Thus, women experience new forms of gender subordination beyond their
families (Ong, 1991), what Elson and Pearson term the recomposition of patriarchal
control on women.

Javanese women, however, enjoy greater independence from patriarchal control in

the family because of their employment and they control their own income (Wolf,
1990b). Researching Bangladeshi women, Kabeer (1997) argues that although women
have little control over their earnings, factory work has positively impacted them. They
are perceived as earning members of the household, which has shifted the balance of
power within the family. Kibria (1995) also reports the positive impact of employment
on Bangladeshi women and argues that earning an income has enhanced their sense of
self-esteem and worth in the household. Similarly, Krugman (1997), Sargent and
Matthews (1997) and Feenstra and Hanson (1997) studied the impact of Maquiladora
employment on women in terms of economic factors, wages and skill and argue that
these jobs are emancipating for women. However, the findings of Fernandez-Kelly with
regard to the implications of Maquiladora employment for women sharply contrast to
these reports. She (1983, cited in Tiano, 1986) maintains that Maquiladora employment
is not a source of financial security, upward mobility or job stability because wages are
low, job advancement is limited and employment is insecure. Women enter into
factories not as autonomous individuals but as members of households, which are
depending on their income. Since they surrender their wages to their family elders, their

66
work often fails to increase their financial independence. Employment also does not
increase their domestic power, since they typically submit to male authority. Safa (1981)
also presents a similar picture from her analysis of womens employment in world
market factories. She claims that although these factories serve to integrate women into
the development process by providing them with large numbers of new industrial jobs,
they enhance the possibilities of their exploitation.

Nash and Fernandez-Kelly (1983) bring together articles that explore the effects
of employment for women and men in Third World countries. Most of the authors of
this anthology argue that employment has intensified womens exploitation, whilst Lim
argues that employment in world market factories contributes to womens emancipation.
Zohir and Paul-Majumder (1996), from a Bangladesh perspective, also report that the
conditions of female garment workers are not precarious as often portrayed, although
another research report by Paul-Majumder and Begum (1997) articulates that women
have very little scope of upward mobility in factory jobs. From her research on women
working in export-oriented garment factories, Zohir (2007) reports that employment has
enabled women to resist poverty, empowered them, increased their mobility and
expanded their individual choice. Similar findings are also evident from the report of
Paul-Majumder and Begum (2006), whilst Dannecker (2002) reports that the effect of
factory work on the lives of Bangladeshi women can be a threat as well as an
opportunity for women. Tiano (1994:46-47) holds that employment in the export sector
offers steady wages at or above the government mandated minimum. Furthermore, the
working conditions in these companies tend to be better than those in other jobs like
farm or construction work available to women and they benefit from their employment
to some extent. Their earning capacity brings them the ability to challenge existing
traditional social relations. Stoddard (1987, cited in Tiano, 1994:45) argues that the
modern working environment in export-oriented industries transform the consciousness
of women. Participation in waged employment gives them material resources and self-
respect and increases their ability to challenge traditional patriarchal social relations.

Thus, research findings on the implications of waged employment for women

present a complex and seemingly contradictory picture. Some analysts argue that
employment in world market factories can, to some extent, emancipate women from
their subordination. They can escape patriarchal control in the family and avoid early

67
marriage, childbearing and child rearing. Employment gives them the feeling of greater
economic independence and increases their self-esteem. They can participate in family
decision making processes. Others maintain that womens employment in world market
factories has intensified their exploitation. They work long hours but receive low wages
and since they have no control over their earnings, income does not enhance their power
within the family. Factory work intensifies their subordination in the household and
they experience new forms of patriarchal domination on the factory floors. These jobs
are unstable in nature and they do not learn new marketable skill. Therefore, dismissal
from their job may lead some women into extremely difficult circumstances, and
reportedly, in some cases even into prostitution for survival.

Conclusion

The integration of global systems of production has been one of the most
dominant features of the postcolonial world. The process of economic globalisation has
developed a new form of relationship of dependence between the developed and
developing countries. During the first two development decades developing countries
relied on developed nations for aid in their quest for development. Financial assistance
was transferred from government to government and governments in developing
countries piloted development initiatives. However, during the 1970s policy makers
termed government led interventions inefficient, since developing countries could not
achieve expected growth. Planners urged governments to rely on market forces and to
encourage private investors to set up manufacturing units. Accordingly, governments in
these countries adopted structural adjustment programmes, which aimed at encouraging
privatisation and trade liberalisation. They implemented export-oriented
industrialisation policies, which encouraged production of goods for the global market
with a view to utilising the labour force. The shift in policy paradigm was linked with
establishing export processing zones and governments in Asia, Africa and Latin
American countries set up such zones, where trade is unrestricted and free of all duties
(Potter, et al., 1999:83). Multinational corporations took the opportunity of such policy
changes to relocate their labour intensive manufacturing units to developing countries.
They moved to Third World countries in search of cheap labour and appointed largely
women in their industries since womens labour is perceived to be cheap in comparison
to mens and also for a range of gender based perceptions discussed in chapter VI. Thus,

68
women gained large scale employment opportunities in the waged labour market with
the ascendance of world market factories in developing countries like Bangladesh.
Bangladeshi women traditionally had few employment opportunities in the waged
labour market because of social norms and values. The government, however, took
various policy measures to remove obstructions and adopted favourable steps to create
employment opportunities for women. Appropriate policy initiatives, especially the NIP
of 1982 and the revised industrial policy of 1996, encouraged women to participate in
development activities of the country.

Womens employment in the formal sector has been a key means of their
integration into development through a modernisation paradigm. As discussed in this
chapter, their integration through employment in waged labour has given rise to two
contesting lines of argument with regard to the implications of participation in factory
work for them. One line of argumentation articulates that employment is more
emancipating for women from their subordinate position in society. Proponents of this
line of thinking speculate that waged employment provides women with economic
opportunities and leads to greater liberty from patriarchal domination. Their wages
enable them to enjoy more autonomy and personal independence and to delay marriage
and child bearing. They also enjoy a greater role in family decision making.

The other line of thinking argues that employment in export-oriented factories

intensifies and reinforces womens subordination in society. They often experience new
forms of patriarchal control in their work places beyond the family. Further, they hardly
enjoy any control over their wages and male control of wages leads to a situation, where
women lose power in family decision making, their economic dependence is increased
and subordination becomes more entrenched (Seccombe, 1980, cited in Chant,
1989:152). Women work long hours for low wages and the working conditions inside
factories are very poor. Despite their long work on the factory floors they receive no
reduction in their reproductive responsibilities in the household and bear a dual burden
of labour (Anker & Hein, 1986 cited in op cit.).

Thus, debate about the implications of paid employment for women working in
export-oriented industries persists. Some researchers argue that employment is more
emancipating for women, while others maintain that it is more exploitive. However, it is

69
obvious that there is a good deal of truth in both propositions. Participation in paid
employment may be both exploitive and emancipating. In this research I examine this
debate in the context of Bangladesh and present my findings in subsequent chapters in
light with empirical data that I collected from the field.

70
 Chapter IV: Interaction and interpretation: the research process

Introduction

Export-oriented garment factories have been the major fields of employment for
Bangladeshi women in the formal sector of the economy. The research question that
guided this study was whether their employment in these factories was exploitative or
emancipating. The purpose of the study was to gain an insight into the experiences and
feelings women had about their job and obtain views of others regarding womens
employment in garment factories. In order to understand this setting, my primary task
was to identify a site, a number of participants, a period of study and appropriate data
collection strategy (Janesick, 2000:384). This chapter turns to these issues surrounding
the research approaches in which I engaged. I employed both qualitative and
quantitative methods within both broader social science and feminist methodological
frameworks. The adoption of qualitative methods facilitated the exploration and
analysis of womens own experiences, understandings and commonalities of their lives
(Clisby et al. 2007:8), while quantitative methods enabled me to obtain the generalised
feelings and attitudes of a large number of participants around my research questions.
For better understanding, I adopted an interpretive approach, which aims to study social
reality in natural settings and attempts to make sense of phenomena from the
perspectives of research participants (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000:3). As a researcher, I
took the role of a complete participant (Bulmer, 1982a:251) in factory production. For
logistical reasons I had to take this role covertly, at least in the first instance, which
indeed departs from feminist standpoints.

I am not claiming that this is a feminist research study per se but I agree with
feminist methodologies and principles and as such wanted to draw on these as far as
possible throughout my research. In this chapter I discuss feminist research
methodology and explore issues of power and ethical aspects of research as raised by
feminist researchers. Here I explain my own reflections on the research approaches I
adopted and detail the various methods I employed in collecting and analysing
empirical materials.

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Feminist Research Methodology

Traditional approaches to social research silenced womens voices by positioning

them as objects (Sprague, 2005:18). As women were the primary subjects of my
research in my effort to analyse the implications of employment in garment factories for
them it was thus important to me that I attempt to follow the line developed by feminist
researchers, insisting on womens inclusion as subjects of investigation. They raised
questions about power and ethical issues in research. They argued for subjective
involvement of the researcher in the research process and advocated an approach to
methodology which is respectful to respondents (Letherby, 2003:5). Methodology in
social research entails the relationship between the process and the product of research
and specifies how social investigation should be approached (Harding, 1987:3; Guba &
Lincoln, 1994:108, 2004:22; Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2006:21). Each methodology links
a particular epistemology, which refers to assumptions about the knower, the known
and the process of knowing (Sprague, 2005:31). Much traditional Social Science
research highlighted objectivity and identified subjectivity as an obstacle to knowledge.
The practices of research, from a positivist perspective, are designed to erase any impact
of subjectivity of the researcher on collection and interpretation of data, in order to
produce value-free knowledge (Sprague & Zimmerman, 2004:39; Sprague, 2005:32).
Feminist researchers, in contrast, see researchers subjective experience as an important
aspect of research and emphasise the emotional aspect of social life grounded in daily
experiences. They reject the notion of value-free scientific inquiry and insist that
researchers emotional involvement cannot be detached; rather, it should be
acknowledged in producing knowledge (Letherby, 2003:68). Thus, feminist
epistemology debunks the myth of value-free knowledge production and I conducted
my research along this line. I listened to women about the practicalities of their lives
around my research questions. They described their lived experiences, which I analysed
and subsequently presented, where my own perceptions have also been reflected.

Feminist research perspectives developed against the backdrop of a widespread

androcentric bias in the research process (Ramazanoglu & Holland, 2002:39; Hesse-
Biber & Leavy, 2006:25). Traditional research identified only men as having the agency
to produce knowledge. However, research done on men cannot represent universal
human experience, cannot be assumed to represent womens lives, interests and

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perspectives. The aim of social research is to capture and accurately explain social
structures and contexts. It requires taking the experiences of all individuals into
consideration. Knowledge is contextual and every individual experiences their social
world differently. As such, accurate explanations of social realities necessitate
understanding of personal experiences and feminist researchers identify these as
valuable assets in knowledge production (Reinharz, 1992:258; Gilbert, 1994:90). They
argue that research has to have a consciousness-raising component, which would impact
positively on research participants and as social researchers this is our responsibility.
Hence, much feminist research is connected to social change and social policy questions,
and often offers explicit policy recommendations (Reinharz, 1992:251; Fonow & Cook,
2005:2212). Thus, feminist methodology is based on distinct epistemology, which
differs from traditional approaches to research. It begins with the experiences of women,
recognises the researcher as a part of the research process and acknowledges that the
beliefs of the researcher shape the research process (Harding, 1987:9).

Feminist research is research on and with women and places them at centre stage.
It involves direct contact with women and information is gathered directly from them
(Kelly, Burton & Regan, 1994:32). It is defined as a focus on women, carried out by
women for other women (Stanley & Wise, 1990:21; Webb, 1993:422). These
definitions limit the accessibility of men into feminist research and thus, make my
position as a researcher vulnerable because of my gender identity. As such, in the
following section, I justify my location as a researcher and argue in line with Brayton
(1997:8) that men can engage with feminist research methodologies. I would argue that
interaction between men and women in research processes would produce important
knowledge and the exclusion of men from feminist research would reinforce traditional
gender stereotypes.

Can men research women?

Feminist research generates its problematic from the perspective of womens

experiences, which forms the key focus of research. Therefore, many women and men
categorically reject the possibility of mens claim to a feminist standpoint on the
grounds that they do not experience the world as women do (Schacht & Ewing,
1997:167). Kelly, Burton & Regan (1994:33) argue that women experience the world as

73
members of a subordinate group and feminist research focuses on creating knowledge
about the experience of these subordinate groups of society. Since men do not have any
experiential knowledge of being women, they lack the ability to fully understand the
subordination of women in society. Hence, women are better equipped to make a
comprehensive study of subordinated groups (Mies, 1983:127). In contrast,
Hawkesworth (1989:544) notes, it cannot be asserted that women only will produce an
accurate depiction of the experience they gain as members of subordinated groups. It is
true that men and women experience reality differently but it does not mean that they
have intrinsically different ways of knowing. Further, an ability to accurately
understand and explain social worlds is not a sex-linked trait (Peas, 2000, cited in
Fawcett & Hearn, 2004:211). Experience is indeed very important in explaining social
realities. However, in the process of creating knowledge more importance should be
given to how research is carried out, how ethical issues are attended to and how
participants are involved in the research process rather than preoccupations with forms
of experience. Moreover, theorising from experiences and making links with the
experience of others carries most weight and has utmost impact (Fawcett & Hearn
2004:212). All perspectives and knowledge are partial and situated and as such, full
understanding of any subject requires the recognition of multiple realities. Therefore, I
would argue that feminist research done by men would rather strengthen the field.
Schacht and Ewing (1997:168) maintain that suggesting men cannot be or should not be
feminist is not only an essentialist argument but such a position falls into a trap set by
patriarchy itself, which reminds us that we live in a dichotomous world.

Harding (1987:8-9) defines feminist research as being done for women and argues
that men can do feminist research if they can value womens experiences of social
reality in producing knowledge. The argument here is that men must place themselves
within the frame of the picture that they attempt to paint with womens experiences. In
doing feminist research, men have to place themselves in a frame with women and try to
create an environment in which women feel able to speak with them more freely. In the
initial stages of this research, I perceived that creating such an environment with women
in the context in which I was working was problematic and I obtained very limited
access to data during that time. I detail this aspect in the research process section of this
chapter. However, Harding (2004a:135) rejects the notion that women are the only
generators of feminist knowledge and argues that men must contribute here from their

74
particular social situation. They have to listen to women effectively to take full account
of their experiences and have to gain a feminist world view. Schacht & Ewing
(1997:169) articulate that in gaining feminist consciousness men must learn about
womens oppression, question their role in it, reject traditional notions of masculinity
that are oppressive and put womens needs at least equal to their own. They have to deal
with the challenges posed by research, which engages two separate and distinct entities,
the researcher and the researched, or the self and the other in the process (Fawcett
& Hearn, 2004:203). Construction of these separate entities creates a hierarchical
relation between them, which is an obstacle to research. They (op. cit.:213) argue that it
is almost impossible to overcome this situation. Nonetheless, we can minimise this
problem and feminist standpoint theory can help us a lot in this perspective.

The basic tenet of standpoint theory is that understanding womens subjugated

position provides the possibility of producing more complete and less distorted
knowledge (Maynard, 1994:19). To achieve a feminist standpoint, one must engage in
the struggle necessary to see nature and social life from the point of view of womens
social experience (Harding, 1987:185). Standpoint theory was presented as a way of
empowering oppressed groups, of valuing their experiences, and of pointing toward a
way to develop an oppositional consciousness (Collins, 2004:108). Hekman (2004:227)
argues that feminist standpoint theory rests on two principles, namely the recognition
that all knowledge is located and situated and the privileging of womens knowledge in
order to replace knowledge produced by men. However, this latter point is not
appropriate, as feminist standpoint theory does not mean that one form of knowledge
would be replaced by another; rather, it claims that knowledge produced by men should
not be considered absolute. Standpoint theory claims that knowledge is socially situated
and argues that different kinds of knowledge are produced at different locations.
Knowledge is based on experiences, and different experiences create different
perceptions (Harding, 2004b:7). I listened to women talk about their experiences and
perceptions of their employment in garment factories. As part of my research strategy I
participated with women in factory production. The findings of this research are based
on the experiences and perceptions women had about their employment in export-
oriented garment factories of Bangladesh. I valued my own experiences, which I gained
as their co-worker on the factory floor, whilst acknowledging unequal power relations
that this involved, as an important part of the empirical evidence of this research. As

75
such, these subjective elements have also been reflected in the analysis. Harding
(1987:9) argues that reflection of a researchers own perceptions in presentation
increases the objectivity of research. Researchers subjective involvement with
participants also narrows down the hierarchical relationship between the researcher
and the other.

Power and ethical issues

Whilst Shakespeare (1997, cited in Fawcett & Hearn, 2004:212) maintains that in
research he aims to equalise the research relationship and gives participants some
control over the process, their participation and their words, the relationship between
those who collect and those who provide information in creating knowledge is rarely
balanced. In research the researcher is in a potentially powerful position and in greater
control of the process (Ramazanoglu & Holland, 2002:107; Sprague, 2005:55). This
power lies in authority that is explicitly based on the process, by which claims about
truth are made and subsequently presented. This authority is influenced by researchers
methodological and epistemological approaches to the study, which are also
determining factors in the construction and utilisation of knowledge (Williamson and
Smyth, 2004:4). However, many authors argue that the use of participant instead of
subject or researched is the first step in moving towards a relationship of greater
equality from a relationship of hierarchy (Brayton, 1997:4). Moreover, my participation
with workers on the factory floor also helped me create a more equal relationship with
my research participants. Klein (1983:94) argues that researchers subjective
involvement in the process is helpful in breaking down the hierarchical power
relationship between the two parties involved in research. Reflexivity is a principle of
feminist research, which opens the possibilities of negotiation regarding power relations
in the research process. Reflexivity implies negotiation between researcher and research
participants over what knowledge claims are made, for whom, why and within what
frame of reference (Ramazanoglu & Holland, 2002:119).

Within feminist approaches to research it is important to establish rapport with

people involved in the study (Reinharz, 1992:265). Feminist researchers underscore the
need for high levels of personal involvement of the researcher in research processes. In
this research my approach was participatory and throughout the process I had close

76
interaction with research participants. I had in-depth discussions with women around
my research questions. I had dialogues with them and dialogue is the key element of
feminist research (Gilbert, 1994:90) where power is relational, mutual and reciprocal
between two subjects who are positioned in a relationship that develops throughout the
process. Such relationships between these two parties empower research participants
(Christians, 2000:148). A participatory approach to research is considered to address
ethical concerns over unequal power relations between both parties engaged in the
research process. Around my research questions, I sought opinions from my research
participants and this could be more empowering as they could contribute to the
description and analysis of a particular social problem. Nevertheless, social research,
due to its humanistic nature, may infringe on the rights and welfare of individuals.
Some research deals with the most sensitive and innermost matters in peoples lives.
Collection of such information is inevitably linked to ethical issues (Frankfort-
Nachmias & Nachmias, 1992:78). Researchers write research reports and, as such, out
of the field they are powerfully positioned, which is also a matter of ethical concern.
Thus, ethical issues saturate all stages of the research process and researchers need to be
aware of and sensitive to these issues (Punch, 1998:281-282).

Feminist research shares the ethical concerns regarding privacy, consent,

confidentiality, deceit and deception for fair conduct of the research in order to avoid
harm to research participants. It is sensitive to ethical issues arising from the concern for
and involvement with individuals participating in research (Olesen 2000:233). The
sensitive nature of feminist research as with much social research means that integrating
ethical issues into the research process is critical to ensure that research is guided by
ethical principles. All researchers need to take ethical issues on board and minimally,
according to Kirsch (1999, cited in Plummer, 2001:226-227) must usually:

a. obtain informed consent from participants on an ongoing basis;

b. make sure that participation is entirely voluntary;
c. inform participants of any risks involved in the research;
d. protect the privacy and confidentiality of all participants;
e. ensure that participation does not cause any harm to the participants.

77
 However, despite my best intentions, I found that I could not adhere to all these
ethical issues at all stages of the research process, due to practical reasons. This is
detailed in the research process section of this chapter. Nonetheless, Christians
(2000:140) argues that accuracy of data is also a question of ethics in social research. As
a researcher, I was very careful to ensure the accuracy of data, since fabrications,
omissions and contrivances are unethical. I was also concerned about what Gilligan
(1982, 1983 & 1988, cited in Christians, 2000:143) terms,ethics of care which relates
to responsibilities and relationships. Ethics of care can be described as an activity of
caring and human care should play the central role in any moral decision making.
According to Plummer (2001:228) the above stated ethical aspects of research are
helpful in guiding researchers through their moral maze.

Selection of the setting

The first step in doing field research is to select a topic for inquiry, which is often
influenced by personal interest, as happened to me. The next step, the selection of an
appropriate site and gaining access to it is linked to the research topic. Geographical and
related practical considerations always influence the choice of setting. Moreover,
researchers are concerned about easy access to the site (Frankfort-Nachmias &
Nachmias, 1992:277) at least in terms of communication. This study intended to
examine the implications of employment in export-oriented garment factories for
women in Bangladesh. Export-oriented garment factories in the country are situated
both within and outside EPZs. Therefore, in one sense, this research is site specific
(Marshall & Rossman, 1999:68) and such issues as geographical location,
communication and accessibility of the site were indeed very important in selecting my
research site.

In Bangladesh there are currently eight EPZs in operation and the second largest
is the Dhaka EPZ (DEPZ) situated at Savar, one of the industrial areas of Dhaka, the
capital of the country. Outside the DEPZ numerous export-oriented garments factories
have been established at Savar, a fast growing industrial town with developed
communication systems and road networks located 35 Km away from the capital city. I
have lived in Savar for more than three decades and hundreds of thousands of female
garment workers also live there because of their employment in export-oriented garment

78
factories. It is because I have spent so many years in this context that my interest arose
and so it was logical to select Savar as my study area.

Selection of research participants

Whilst export sector employment in Bangladesh, as elsewhere in the Third World,

is predominantly female oriented (Kelly, 1986:824; Addison & Demery, 1988:344), I
involved both female and male participants in my study, which intended to obtain views
about female employment from both genders. I also spoke with a number of
respondents who belonged to some female employees kin group with a view to
exploring the experiences and perceptions about their respective female family members
working in garment factories.

Choosing a study sample is an important step in any research project, since it is

rarely practical, efficient and ethical to study whole populations (Marshall, 1996:522).
Therefore, researchers select samples and well-developed sampling decisions are crucial
for any studys soundness (Marshall & Rossman, 1999:72). The sample population of
this study belonged to a homogenous group in terms of employment. As part of my
research strategy, I worked as a quality inspector in two garment factories, although my
researcher identity remained secret to all workers while I was working with them on the
factory floor. In my first job, I worked with 169 workers in a non-EPZ factory where
113 were female and 56 were male, while in the second job 138 female and 38 male
workers were my co-workers on an EPZ factory floor. Amongst 176 workers in the EPZ
factory, 98 were female operators, 40 were female helpers, 22 were male operators, 5
males were ironmen and the remaining 11 were male helpers. In the non-EPZ factory
87 were female operators, 26 were female helpers, 31 were male operators, 6 were male
ironman and 19 were male helpers. My research interest centred mostly on the female
workers and 138 and 113 female workers in two factories respectively formed my
sample frame for the qualitative interviews. I selected 32 women from the sample frame
as key respondents, with whom I had comprehensive discussions about the conditions
and positions of women working in export-oriented garment factories. They consisted
of those research participants who were especially sensitive to my areas of concern,
were willing to discuss issues further and were able to provide collective and important
viewpoints and opinions (Burgess, 1999:346). In my research, they comprised

79
unmarried, married, separated, deserted, divorced and widowed factory workers, living
with and/or without other family members. Another determinant, in selecting key
respondents, was their length of service. I selected key respondents, on the basis of
theoretical sampling, which involved a search for validity of findings, rather than
representativeness of study population (Finch & Mason, 1999:294). Coyne (1997:629)
argues that theoretical sampling is a sort of purposeful selection of participants with a
view to obtaining more specific information about a particular issue. Theoretical
sampling necessitates building interpretive theories from emerging data, and selecting
new samples to examine and elaborate that (Marshall, 1996:523). On the factory floor, I
had general discussions with all workers, women in particular, around my research
questions. I classified the data that I obtained at this stage and then I had thorough
discussions with key respondents around each data set. The key respondents were those
whom in the course of general discussions I perceived had more insights around
research questions, were the most knowledgeable around the emerging themes and were
willing to discuss additionally issues of central importance to the purpose of research.
Size of the sample was of secondary importance to the quality of data, as qualitative
research is concerned with smaller numbers of cases with more intensive analysis
(Davidson & Layder, 1994:173). For the purpose of obtaining views of family elders of
female factory workers, I conducted semi-structured interviews with nine male and four
female family members representing thirteen key respondents, who were living with
their kin groups in their respective houses. It is worth mentioning that I was able to visit
and interview fifteen key respondents at their respective houses and around. Of them
two were living on their own and I interviewed family elders of the remaining thirteen
key respondents, while I was visiting them in their houses.

In addition to my detailed discussions with key respondents and semi-structured

interviews with some family members, I conducted structured interviews with 107
female and forty-eight male factory workers. Of 107 female workers forty-four worked
in six different EPZ factories and sixty-three represented nine non-EPZ factories while
twenty-three males were from four EPZ factories and twenty-five were from five non-
EPZ factories. None of them were from the area live in by either myself or my co-
workers on the factory floor. Regarding the selection of respondents for structured
interviews, I used snowball sampling through factory workers who came into contact
with me due to my work. Aber (1993:73) argues that the snowball sampling method is

80
used to obtain a sample where there is no adequate list of the population under study.
The snowballing from one worker to another increased the pace of identifying
respondents and commencing data collection, since I contacted prospective participants
from within garment factory workers networks. Snowball sampling is appropriate in
such a situation where the target sample members are involved in a kind of network
with others who share common characteristics (op cit.:74). Hedges (1979, cited in Aber)
argues that snowball sampling is useful when the potential participants of the study are
likely to be sceptical of the intentions of the researcher. From mid 2007 there had been
some unrest 2 in the garment sector of Bangladesh, which was continuing during my
study. Over and obvious issues of power and control, assistance from the management
in selecting participants might have made employees especially sceptical of the purpose
of the study because of that turmoil. Besides, it was not unlikely that management
would influence the participants, which would produce biased data. Against these
backdrops, I considered snowball sampling more appropriate for selecting participants
for structured interviews. I present a summary of the research process in the following
table, which includes research methods employed, number of participants and amount
of time engaged in data collection.

Table- 4.1 Summary of research process

Name of data collection Number of Number of covered Time
method employed in research participants garment factories employed
Female Male EPZ n-EPZ3
Discussions 32 - 1 1 140 hours

Semi-structured interviews 4 9 - - 15 hours

Structured interviews 107 48 10 14 250 hours

Participation Observation - - Y Y 670 hours

Total 143 57 11 15 1015 hours

2
Workers demands for regular payment of wages, overtime pay, pay rise, trade union rights etc. caused
the unrest situation in the Bangladesh garment sector during that time. This situation mostly centred the
export-oriented garment factories situated outside the Dhaka Export Processing Zone (DEPZ) factories
of Savar, Dhaka. However, it affected some EPZ factories as well.
3
By n-EPZ I mean non-EPZ garment factories which are situated beyond any enclave. These factories
also enjoy similar financial incentives and produce garments for export to the global market.

81
Research process

This inquiry was a blending of quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Denzin (1978:21) advocated the term triangulation which involves combining multiple
sources of data collection, for example, I utilised participant observation, discussions,
semi-structured interviews and structured interviews to gather data for this research.
Researchers have viewed the idea of triangulation as entailing a need to employ both
qualitative and quantitative methods in the same study to capitalise strengths of both
approaches and to compensate for weaknesses of each approach (Jick, 1979:603; Punch,
1998:246). Qualitative research questions tend to be more exploratory, while
quantitative research questions are, to a great extent, confirmatory. Greene et al.
(1989:256) argued that employing both these methods in understanding social
experiences leads to multiple inferences that confirm or complement each other and
strengthen the validity of inquiry results. The convergence between qualitative and
quantitative methods provides better opportunities for answering our research questions
and enhances our belief that results are valid and not a method artefact (Bouchard,
1976:268; Bryman, 1988:131; Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2003:14). Feminist researchers
also acknowledge the usefulness of combining methods and Reinharz (1992:210) argues
that a multi-method approach increases the likelihood of researchers better
understanding of research participants.

Drawing heavily on feminist research methodology and perspectives I attempted

to address the subject/object issue of social research. I attempted to break the
subject/object relationship in research processes. I started gathering data with qualitative
interviews and ended with structured interviews. I commenced my purposeful
conversations (Kahn & Cannel, 1957:149) with female garment workers living in the
same area I live in. Feminist research approaches urge researchers to get close to their
participants to have a subjective involvement in research processes. However, I
perceived that, as Sprague (2005:140) argued, getting too close to them at times raised
the risk of limiting their willingness to disclose unfavourable information. In the initial
phase of research I discussed my research questions with twenty-two women whom I
knew personally because of our living in the same locality. On a random basis, I visited
them in their houses and during ice breaking sessions of discussions, I detailed my
intention and purpose of talking to them. They all agreed, seemingly quite eagerly to

82
become part of my study. Nevertheless, as discussions progressed, I perceived that the
conduct of research with them was very difficult. I obtained short, inadequate and
apparently contradictory and confusing answers from most of them. Some of these
respondents, for example, said they liked factory working hours and did not feel they
were too long, despite the fact that they also said they could not get adequate rest and
sleep due to their working hours. I felt that the majority of them were very conservative
in their responses to my questions and talking to them about issues like harassment was
hardly possible due to cultural values and taboos. Culturally, such issues are not
discussed in Bangladesh and for obvious reasons they often felt shy and did not feel
comfortable when I tentatively tried to find out about sexual harassment at work places.

I appreciated the reality that persuading my female acquaintances to talk openly

was not very easy, although initially they seemed interested to have somebody study
personal aspects of their lives. Taylor & Bogdan (1984:47) argued, and this is how I felt
during my field work, that research participants were likely to hide those things that
researchers wanted to learn about when they knew too much about the research.
Following an introductory meeting, I visited them several times and noticed that they
had preconceptions about me, which worked as a barrier between us. Jorgensen
(1989:58) points out that people tend to respond based on their preconceptions of a
researcher. This may result in a range of reactions ranging from suspicion, disdain,
indifference and antagonism, to inquisitiveness or friendliness. Yet, throughout the
process of my initial interviews, the women I spoke with were very reserved and I failed
to make any significant progress interviewing them.

At the outset, I thought that researching women, especially those whom I knew,
would not be a difficult task. Nevertheless, I experienced from the field that whilst not
impossible it is very arduous. Seemingly, the majority of my research participants at
that stage were friendly, although I perceived that I could not break the power hierarchy,
which worked within existing socio-cultural and patriarchal frameworks. Breaking
down power hierarchies is one of the dimensions of feminist research that I could not
negotiate with them, due to embedded gender practices. It was the major obstacle that I
felt kept away my research participants from exploring the realities of their lives with
me as a man. Therefore, for the purpose of my research I had to deviate to a great extent
for a while from feminist research perspectives and situate my position within broader

83
sociological research methodologies. Despite my shift in research approaches, I was
concerned about the power and ethical issues as outlined by the feminist research
standpoint. However, I decided to try and speak with women who had no prejudice
about me. Looking for such women, from other areas, did not seem practical to me.
Research requires establishing an adequate level of trust, credibility and rapport and
these are always problematic and time consuming, especially with strangers.
Furthermore, women in Bangladesh traditionally hardly talk to any male stranger. In
this situation, I considered that working on the factory floor would give me access to
large numbers of people from both genders. I perceived that a factory job would help
me the most to establish and foster relations with prospective research participants
through my continuous interaction with them. In addition, it would enable me to obtain
unfiltered first-hand knowledge of social life by observing them in their everyday lives,
by listening to them talk about their experiences and by looking at the behaviours of
people in work situations (Taylor & Bogdan, 1984:7). Very few previous researchers
employed participant observation as a means of researching female garment factory
workers. The majority of researchers mostly utilised interviews, questionnaires and the
like in researching womens lives. Ruth Cavendishs Women on the Line (1982), Judy
Wajcmans Women in Control: Dilemmas of a Workers co-operative (1983), Alejandro
Lugos Cultural Production and Reproduction Ciudad Juarez, Mexico: Tropes at Play
Among Maquiladora Workers (1990) are among the few accounts of working womens
lives based on participant observation. Deirdre Kellys St. Lucias Female Electronics
Factory Workers: Key Components in an Export-oriented Industrialisation Strategy
(1986), John Sargent and Linda Matthewss Skill Development and Integrated
Manufacturing in Mexico (1997), Kurt Alan Ver Beeks Maquiladoras: Exploitation or
Emancipation? An Overview of the Situation of Maquiladora Workers in Honduras
(2001), Naila Kabeer and Simeen Mahmuds Globalization, Gender and Poverty:
Bangladeshi Women Workers in Export and Local Markets (2004) are some works in
which they all utilised survey methods as a means of data collection.

Participant observation is the best known method employed in ethnography. Klein

(1983:94) argues that ethnography is particularly appropriate to feminist research, as it
helps researchers better understand the situation they want to know, breaking the power
hierarchy between two parties. Researchers have to enter into an intense nature of
relationship with research participants, in their effort to truly grasp their lived

84
experiences (Davidson & Layder, 1994:165; Fontana & Frey, 2000:655). My decision
to take factory jobs was a means of gaining access to womens lives as their co-worker.
I visited a number of EPZ and n-EPZ factories and explained my research intention to
management personnel. I sought permission from them to participate in factory
production with workers as a researcher. However, none of the factory managements I
visited agreed to allow me entry into production floor. Perhaps the presence of a
researcher on the factory floor as a worker was new and not any ordinary circumstance
for management. They also might have thought that the presence of a researcher would
have affected production targets. Further, it was not unlikely that they were suspicious
of me and my motives. The continued unrest situation in garment factories at that time,
as mentioned earlier, might be one of the reasons for their unwillingness to allow me to
work in their factories. Therefore, in such a situation I took factory jobs as a quality
inspector concealing the fact that I was a researcher4.

Figure 4.1 Researcher at work in a garment factory

The reason I became a quality inspector is because this position was one of the
few possibilities for me as a man with no prior work experience in garment factories.
Quality inspector is the only non-technical entry level managerial post in garment

4
One of my fellow quality inspectors took my picture at work in a garment factory. He was convinced
when I told him that my parents and family wanted to see me at work in the factory. Thus, some others
helped me in taking some pictures while I myself captured some of the pictures. Shots were taken using
my camera phone. It is worth mentioning that workers on the factory floor agreed to be snapped
although the intention was unknown to them.

85
factories which necessitates constant close touch with workers on the factory floor.
Entry into such a post requires no prior job experience or training but a minimum class
XII (A level) education. A quality inspectors task is to check whether the clothes have
been sewn according to a buyers specification. They check every stage of making of
garments, which requires them to move and see the work done by every worker
involved in the process. Therefore, taking the post of a quality inspector, given my
research interest, was the easiest and most appropriate for me. This post belongs to the
lowest tier of managerial level and mandates overseeing the workers. My gender
identity along with over sight role on the factory floor placed me in a hierarchical
position to an extent and I tried to make a friendly relation with factory workers with a
view to breaking down the power relation that existed between me and them.

Figure 4.2: A woman is fixing machinery problems to keep production going

As quality inspector, I worked in two factories and I had the opportunity to

observe and talk to 169 and 176 workers in the n-EPZ and EPZ garment factories
respectively and as noted previously, they comprised both male and female workers. I
talked to them during work, lunch breaks and even while we were commuting to the
factory. I commuted by factory buses to both factories. I had lunch with them every day
in the canteen, situated at the factory premises. Following my other colleagues, I used to
go to the factories dressed casually. Thus, under cover, I tried to be one of them and
gain their confidence and trust and create a conversation-friendly environment.

86
 I started my first factory job in the n-EPZ factory in September 2008, and I
finished a month later. Thereafter, I worked in the EPZ garment factory, where, I
worked from November 2008 to December 2008. During my fifty-two day participation
with workers in factory production, I had detailed discussions around my research
questions with eight women in the n-EPZ factory and nine women in the EPZ factory.
These seventeen women were my key respondents, with whom I had repeated
discussions, as during work it was not possible to continue talks for a long time, at a
stretch. They talked to me enthusiastically, although because of the nature of my
participation with them in factory production, it was not possible on my part to tell them
the intention or nature and purpose of my discussions, which a researcher should do
willingly. These two conditions are deemed to be important principles of any
ethnographic research (Norris, 1993:128), which I could not meet, because of my covert
participation in factory production with them. Furthermore, covert research leaves no
scope for people to give their informed consent. Thus, I had to compromise with
feminist research approaches during my repeated discussions with seventeen key
respondents. Nonetheless, over the course of my time on the factory floor many workers,
irrespective of their gender identity, became friendly with me, to the extent that some of
them invited me to their homes as well. After my participation with workers on the
factory floor, I visited ten n-EPZ and nine EPZ female factory workers, in their
respective houses. They introduced me to their family members as their co-worker and I
perceived that such an identity helped me the most to dilute the power relations to a
great extent, even though it would be naive to suggest that there were no power
imbalances. Whilst at their houses I then revealed my real identity and explained my
research intentions. They expressed surprise at my social identity and identity as a
researcher. Some of them commented that I was very clever to hide my identity and
interact with them as a factory worker but some seemed upset or angry about what I had
been doing. Nevertheless, of these nineteen women four refused to be interviewed
further, while fifteen others agreed to participate in in-depth interviews and share their
experiences with me around my research questions. Word quickly spreads in factories
and I understand that soon all other workers, with whom I had worked, came to know
about me and my reasons for working at their factories.

I took the role of quality inspector covertly, as a means of entry into garment
factories which would otherwise not have been possible. My factory job gave me access

87
to research participants and thus to data. Some researchers do not support this research
approach on ethical grounds. They argue that this approach is counter to usual norms in
empirical research. It is an invasion of privacy as respondents have no opportunity to
give their informed consent to being studied. Further, deliberate misrepresentation of
the character of research or the identity of the researcher is unethical (Erikson, 1968:
505-506; Bulmer, 1982b:218-221; Erikson cited in Bryman & Burgess, 1999: xxxii-
xxxiii). However, I followed the line Denzin developed in response to this debate
between covert and overt participant observation. Denzin (1968:502) argued that the
goal of social research is the advancement of knowledge and explanation of social
contexts. As such, researchers can adopt any method that does not cause harm to the
people being studied. One of the most important aspects of research is taking care of
participants well-being. During my field work, I believe that there was no element in
my research or any such attempt that caused harm to others. I maintained my own
personal, moral and ethical standards which I considered more important in the field. I
concealed the identities and locations of my research participants, along with places of
data collection and present data in anonymised form to ensure that no-one can identify
them or use my findings to affect them (Bulmer, 1982b:224; Whyte, 1984:210).

Covert participant observation is a long and well established ethnographic

approach used in anthropological and sociological research. Classic instances of such
research include Caudills study of a psychiatric hospital where he posed as a mental
patient (Caudill, 1952), Festinger and his colleagues covertly studied the religious
behaviour of a group of people (Festinger et al, 1956, cited in Homan, 1980:51),
Sullivans study of an air force training programme, where he enlisted himself as an air
force trainee (Sullivan et al. 1958), Loaflands study of alcoholics interaction with
Alcoholics Anonymous, where his students posed as alcoholics (Loaflond & Lejeune,
1960), Humphreys study of homosexual encounters in public toilets (Laud Humphrey,
1970 cited in Bulmer 1980:61), Rosenhans study of the labelling process in psychiatry,
where he used pseudo-patients (Rosenhan, 1982) and Homans study of language
behaviour of old-time Pentecostals (Homan, 1980). These studies have yielded
knowledge, which probably could not have been obtained otherwise. Caudill (cited in
Bulmer, 1982c:66) argues that covert participant observation is a means of gaining new
knowledge which otherwise is not available. During my overt research, I experienced
that research participants change behaviour when they knew that they were being

88
studied. I realised from my field experience, and Bulmer (op cit.) notes, that (T)he use
of researchers whose identities are not known means that the research situation
remains true to life, and is not distorted by the presence of (identified) social scientists,
whose presence ..... in turn influences the behaviour of others in that setting.

All research is secret in some ways and for the sake of research we do not tell our
research participants everything. Roth (1962:284) argues that secrecy is a part of
research, which cannot be avoided, rather as researchers we have to encounter this as an
integral part of research. I concealed my identity to gain access to garment factories as a
worker. Factory management, whom I visited and to which I explained my research
intention, denied me access to factory floor as a researcher and disclosure of my real
identity during covert participation would definitely restrict my access to factories and
thus to data. As such, at that stage of research, it was practically impossible to formally
obtain participants informed consent. Research participants informed consent is
argued to be an integral part of research, which is violated in covert research.
Nevertheless, the British Sociological Association (2002:4-5) allows covert approaches
to research in circumstances where difficulties arise when research participants change
their behaviour because they know they are being studied [and] [.....] when access to
spheres of social life is closed to social scientists by powerful or secretive interests.
The importance here has been placed on knowledge which is superior to ignorance
(Homan, 1980:57).

Figure 4.3: Visiting a female participant in her home for in-depth discussions
(photo taken with permission by participants son)

89
 One of the primary tools of womens oppression is the maintenance of silence
about their experiences and perspectives (Rich, 1980; Lorde, 1984, cited in Tolman &
Szalacha, 2004:103). Against this approach, my intention from the outset was to be an
easy-going listener with the motive of creating an environment, so that workers, women
in particular, could speak freely. My ultimate aim was to engage them as active
contributors in the process (Cornwall & Jewkes, 1995:1668). This approach departs
from survey design by providing an opportunity for women to talk about their lives,
which mostly remain underexplored (Tolman & Szalacha, op cit.). I participated with
women in factory production as their co-worker and, thus, became a part of their social
world. Studying a social world means being a part of it and without being a part we
cannot study the social world. Therefore, all social research is a form of participant
observation (Hammersley & Atkinson, 1983, cited in Atkinson & Hammersley,
1988:111).

I spent more than seven weeks in two garment factories, largely with women, and
experienced their daily life there. I was a sympathetic listener, which is argued to be one
of the best means of achieving rapport and trust in participant observation (Davidson &
Layder, 1994:168). According to Guba & Lincoln (1994:115, 2004:34) the role of the
researcher in interpretive research is that of a passionate participant who is actively
engaged in facilitating the reconstruction of the voices of research participants.
Throughout the process, my aim was to listen to and facilitate the reconstruction of the
stories of women, as they interpret their realities in domestic, employment and societal
environments. My participation in factory production helped me develop a close
relationship with them. As a quality inspector, I tried to keep myself busy with my task
on the factory floor to avail the opportunity of talking to every worker, irrespective of
their gender identity. I used to share my perceptions and experiences with them, which
in turn, encouraged them to tell me about themselves. Since I was a new recruit, they
used to tell me the different aspects of factory work, about different persons on the floor
and in the end, conversations were like learning sessions for me. I was learning from
them about a world which I had never explored previously. My approach with them
helped me create an image as being someone to whom they could express themselves,
without fear of disclosure or negative evaluation (Taylor & Bogdan, 1984:38). I
discussed my research questions whenever and wherever it was possible or they gave
me time to do so.

90
 The discussions I had with women on the factory floor were short and repeated for
practical reasons. Long talks with them at a stretch would have slowed down their work
speed, which ultimately would have resulted in their failure to meet hourly production
targets. Sometimes it happened that they remembered an incident when I moved to
someone else and later they themselves called me to relate that story of their life. I
mentioned earlier that I conducted fifteen in-depth interviews beyond factory premises.
Fourteen of these qualitative interviews I conducted in the houses of my respective
participants, while I discussed my research questions with one woman in the national
mausoleum at Savar, where hundreds of thousands of unknown 1971 independence
war heroes of Bangladesh are buried. The longest of my discussions with key
respondents lasted for around four hours and the shortest was of a few minutes. During
discussions, I encouraged them to talk, without any interruption from me. Sometimes
they were very emotional and moved to some other topics, like personal life struggles.
Despite moving to different tracks, I did not obstruct them in talking, although at times,
I had to guide conversations towards my questions.

My employment in two garment factories enabled me to see mens behaviour with

and attitudes towards women for myself. Moreover, during my participation in factory
work, I discussed issues surrounding womens employment in garment factories with
male workers and tried to find out their perceptions about women working with them. I
observed how women face harassment from their male colleagues inside the factory and
talked to them on these issues. Thus, my job helped me a lot to learn these aspects of
my research from women, which would perhaps not have been possible at all previously.
On the basis of my understanding from general discussions on the factory floor,
repeated and in-depth discussions with key respondents and supported by secondary
data analysis, I developed some thematic issues as central to understanding the
implications of employment in garment factories for women. Based on these thematic
issues I framed a structured interview schedule for women. Subsequently, I conducted
107 structured interviews with female garment workers from fifteen factories. The
structured interviews with women focused on my research questions from different
viewpoints and aimed to produce multifaceted sets of data. The intention, in
interviewing women, was to find instances of data patterns that I got from my previous
discussions and in-depth interviews. Each such interview took me around two hours on
average. In addition to the structured interviews with women, I interviewed forty-eight

91
male factory workers who belonged to nine different garment factories. Each of these
interviews lasted for forty-five minutes on average. I designed a separate structured
interview schedule for them, which sought their views about working women and
womens employment in garment factories. As I mentioned earlier, none of these female
and male respondents of structured interviews belonged to the factories in which I
worked, or were from the area I live in.

Figure 4.4: A semi-structured interview with the husband of a factory worker

Thus, I conducted two separate sets of structured interviews which varied in terms
of issues, types and numbers of questions. During mid January and early April 2009, I
conducted these interviews in a face-to-face situation, to elicit data from respondents
regarding their background, opinions and attitudes. It is argued that adopting a
quantitative approach with qualitative methods enables researchers to test their
generalisations and readers to gain a sense of the flavour of the data as a whole.
Researchers can make claims that they have not taken only those fragments of data
which support their arguments; rather their presentation reflects the general trend
(Silverman, 2006:52). I included open-ended questions in both structured interviews to
encourage participants to talk freely around the topic (Sharpe, 1988:11). For structured
interviews, I visited all my respondents at their respective houses during week day
evenings and weekends and other national holidays. The semi-structured interviews that
I conducted with nine male and four female family elders of thirteen key respondents,
also took place at their respective houses, while I was visiting the key respondents. As

92
noted earlier, my intention in the semi-structured interviews was to obtain the views of
family elders about their female factory workers. Interviewing is appealing in social
science research as it provides researchers with access to peoples ideas, thoughts and
memories in their own words (Reinharz, 1992:19) and in my research, I employed
interviews as a key strategy of data collection.

Figure 4.5: A structured interview session with a male factory worker

I recorded five qualitative interviews with a recording device, while on ten

occasions I took both field notes and mental notes, since participants did not feel
comfortable in the presence of such a device. In recording conversations that took place
in factory premises or around I took mental notes (Davidson & Layder, 1994:172) and
at night I used to write these up in notes, which comprised a description of participants,
main incidents, events, behaviours and my feelings. Field notes and mental notes were
the means of recording semi-structured interview data, while during structured
interviews I listened and recorded data on the schedule. I was a participant observer on
the factory floor, where I talked and worked, observed and listened and participated
with workers in meeting daily production targets. Observation is a more ethnographic
research approach, which entails systematic noting and recording of events and
behaviours of research participants. Observation plays an important role in social
research as researchers note participants body language, behaviour, attitudes etc. and
utilise those in producing their reports.

93
 I conducted 155 structured interviews in approximately 250 hours. For seventeen
repeated discussions and fifteen in-depth interviews I employed approximately eighty
hours, while I employed approximately fifteen hours for thirteen semi-structured
interviews. I commenced my initial data collection during June, the beginning of rainy
season in Bangladesh, which lasts until September. During this time it is difficult for
people to move around due to rain. In the months from June to August I could manage
twenty-two in-depth interviews on which I spent approximately sixty hours although, as
noted earlier, I had very limited access to respondents during this time.

Data analysis

We analyse data to bring meanings and insights to the words and acts of research
participants. Traditional analytic procedure contains such steps as organising data,
generating categories, coding, collating codes into potential themes, defining and
refining themes and finally presenting the overall story the different themes reveal
(Marshall and Rossman, 1999:152). I employed a thematic analytical framework to
analyse my data. This qualitative analytic method identifies and analyses themes and
puts them together to form a comprehensive picture of the collective experiences of
research participants (Braun & Clarke, 2006:79). I myself conducted the whole process
of research through interactive means and, as such, I was familiar with the data and had
some initial analytic thoughts. I started with concentrating on transcribed conversations
and detailed notes to identify regular recurring experiences and feelings of my research
participants. I identified various patterns of experiences and grouped all similar patterns
together. I took the patterns of experiences as my themes, as thematic analysis focuses
on identifiable themes (Aronson, 1994:5). In framing themes I mostly placed
importance on the prevalence of patterns of experience but in some cases I considered
the importance of the experience in relation to the overall research question. The overall
view, regarding the implication of womens employment in garment factories, I drew on
the basis of different themes, which I generated from qualitative interviews with
reference to related quantitative data. In addition to the qualitative analysis, I analysed
the quantitative data from structured interviews. In the structured interview schedule I
set nominal values for the variables of each question. I used excel for interpreting these
numeric data. The data was presented in descriptive form using frequencies and
measures of central tendency (mean) for the analysis. I made the graphical

94
representation of descriptive analysis in excel as well, while numeric figures in
subsequent chapters are shown in percentage (%).

Conclusion

Research is always an arduous task and perhaps it is very difficult to conduct any
such task without pitfalls. Indeed my research had some strengths and drawbacks. A
major strength of this research was the application of both qualitative and quantitative
approaches. The quantitative research approach enabled me to cover a larger population
to seek their views on the research questions, whilst the qualitative research approach
facilitated me to obtain detailed narratives from the participants within their normative
contexts. Triangulation or adoption of mixed methods was, thus, a strength, which
helped me to cross-check and thus to generate rich data. I collected all data in a face-to-
face situation, which is also strength of this research. My participation with respondents
in the process enabled me to read their behaviour and attitudes in relation to issues of
my research concern in a real life situation. I interviewed both men and women in my
research. Inclusion of participants from both genders, especially kin groups of female
respondents helped data triangulation and enhanced the richness of data. Furthermore,
covert participant observation was another strength of my study. This approach enabled
me to collect data in a natural setting, although it was also one of the ethical limitations
of my study as I could not gain prior informed consent from all participants.

On researching women in relation to their employment in export-oriented garment

factories in Bangladesh I integrated both qualitative and quantitative approaches in the
research process. This inclusive viewpoint on methods appears to be increasingly
accepted in feminist research circles in pursuit of research. Some researchers argue that
both types of methods can be effectively utilised in research reflecting feminist values
(Jayaratne & Stewart, 1991:91). Personal experiences are invaluable assets for feminist
research. Accordingly, I intended to listen to womens experiences about their
employment in garment factories. I started discussing my research questions with
twenty-two women who lived in the same area I live in. Because of living in the same
area and pre-orientation I had easy access to them although I gained very little data from
them around my research questions. My initial interviews with them clearly
demonstrated that a researchers age, gender identity, social background, personality,

95
etc. are important factors that influence the behaviour of research participants a great
deal. As such, I saw the need for a different approach.

As an overt researcher, I failed to gain access to garment factories. Thereafter I

took factory jobs covertly. The immediate problem researchers frequently confront in
the field is how to make contact and establish rapport with research participants (Sharpe,
1988:17). My living in the same area in the first instance while taking factory jobs
subsequently enabled me to overcome this situation. I conducted seventeen repeated
discussions with women on the factory floor and around. I experienced womens
working life inside factories for myself and listened to them about the realities of their
lives. My participation with them helped me the most to obtain their trust and
confidence in a very short time. My research approach at this stage did not adhere to my
wish to engage a feminist methodological approach. I discussed my research concerns
with female factory workers but could not obtain their informed consent due to my
covert participation with them. Nevertheless, at a later time I conducted another fifteen
in-depth interviews with women where I followed feminist research strategies. I visited
these women at their respective houses, told them my real identity, discussed my
research intentions with them and they talked to me around my research questions in
detail. I conducted thirteen semi-structured interviews with family elders of thirteen key
respondents with a view to learning their perceptions about their working female
household members. I subsequently conducted 155 structured interviews with both
female and male respondents which aimed to collect data from a broader perspective. I
devised two separate sets of structured interview schedules which covered the thematic
issues that I devised from my previously conducted interviews. The schedules varied in
terms of numbers and types of questions. One of my intentions from the structured
interviews was to encourage respondents to talk freely and, as such, I set some open-
ended questions in the schedules. I adopted a thematic analytic approach in analysing
qualitative data while excel was my tool to analyse quantitative data and subsequently
presented research findings. The research had some strengths and draw backs. In
presenting research findings I maintained confidentiality and anonymity of my research
participants (British Sociological Association, 2002:4-5). This is one of the strengths
while one of the weaknesses of this research design is reliance on my memory to some
extent in recording data. I collected data in four phases and in each phase I dealt with

96
different respondents employing different methods. The following table gives a detailed
picture of the research process that I followed in this research.

Table 4.2: Research processes at a glance

Phase of Duration of Research Number of Sampling Factories Time

data each phase method participants procedure covered engaged
collection employed Female Male utilised EPZ n-EPZ (in hours)
May 2008- In-depth 9 - 3 - 60
Phase 1 Random
July 2008 discussion 13 - - 5 (approx.)
September 25
Repeated - Theoretical
2008 10 (approx.)
discussions
-
420
Phase 2 October Participant - - -
(approx.)
2008 observation - 1
October In-depth 22
9 - Theoretical
2008 discussions (approx.)
- Semi- 8
November structured 2 5 - (approx.)
2008 Interview
November 18
Repeated - Theoretical
2008 7 (approx.)
discussions
-
250
Phase 3 December Participant - -
(approx.)
2008 observation
1 -
December 15
In-depth - Theoretical
2008 6 (approx.)
discussions
-
Semi- 7
January -
structured 2 4 (approx.)
2009
Interview
January 51 - 6 -
Phase 4 2009 Structured 56 - Snowball - 9 250
- interview - 23 4 - (approx.)
April
2009 - 25 - 5
May 2008 1075
Total
- - 165 57 - 14 20 (approx.)
April 2009

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 Chapter V: Garment workers of Savar: a socioeconomic profile

Introduction

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated developing countries of the

world with, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, a current population of
about 141.5 million and a per capita income of US$ 444 per annum. Out of the total
population 48.8% are women (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2009) who are
traditionally defined by their gender throughout their lives, within the family as
daughter, wife and mother. Systems of patrilineal inheritance and patrilocal residence
encourage the dependence of women on men and limit their social and economic
autonomy, which is powerfully supported by purdah or female seclusion. The literal
meaning of purdah in Bengali is curtain, which creates boundaries and hides from view.
Likewise, the custom of purdah separates women from men and confines them to the
household compound, keeping away from the outside world (Hoque, Myrayama &
Rhman, 1995:74; Kibria, 1995:293). It is both a social and religious institution, which
restricts womens access to the labour market. Observance of purdah by women is an
indication of familial social status. According to popular perceptions, women from
respectable and economically secured families do not participate in paid employment.
However, the implementation of development works, such as the Food for Work
Programme by the government in rural areas in the 1970s initiated the inclusion of
poor women in paid work in Bangladesh, despite traditional prohibitions against
womens presence, in male dominated public spheres. Educated young women were
employed in teaching and rural health and family planning sectors. The establishment of
export processing enclaves and the rapid growth of export-oriented garment factories
since the 1980s reshaped the labour market in a short space of time in Bangladesh and
made womens presence markedly visible in public spheres (Figure 5.1). This chapter
explores the socioeconomic profile of the garment workers who were my research
participants. Attempts have also been made here to look into the factors that influence
women to take garment factory jobs as well as the working conditions they experience
inside the factories.

98
 29.2%
26.1%
23.9%

15.8%

9.9%
8% 8.2%

1983-1984
Figure 1984-1985
5.1: Trend 1985-1986
of female 1995-1996
participation 1999-2000
in labour market 2002-2003
over the years 2005-2006
Source: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2007a)

Workers Age

For the purpose of this research I interviewed altogether 161 female workers 5
from twenty-five garment factories and forty-eight male workers from nine garment
factories of Savar and men, however, are overrepresented in this sample to an extent.
Among the female workers seventy three were from ten EPZ factories and eighty eight
were from fifteen n-EPZ factories, while twenty-three male workers belonged to four
EPZ factories and twenty-five of them represented five n-EPZ factories. The
predominant age of the garment workers, whom I interviewed in this study, was
between eighteen and twenty-four with 68%6 of female and 49% of male respondents
belonging to this age group (Figure 5.2). This is supportive of the findings of other
studies conducted in Bangladesh (Hossain, Jahan, & Sobhan, 1988; Kabeer, 1991;
Dannecker, 2002) as well as of work forces in export sectors worldwide (Fernandez-
Kelly, 1983; Joeks, 1985; Kelly, 1986; Lee, 1995; Beek, 2001). The age structure of
factory workers in Bangladesh, especially in EPZs, has changed over the last few years,
since laws prohibiting child labour in Bangladesh are maintained, in garment factories
in particular. I noticed many factories had posted a sign at the entrance saying, We do
not employ any worker below the age of 18. None of the EPZ factory workers I
interviewed was below eighteen years of age, while a few n-EPZ factory workers were
below eighteen.

5
Although I did not have very effective discussions around my research questions with 22 female factory
workers, whom I interviewed during the first phase of my data collection, I included them in the sample
frame to present the socio-economic profile of female garment factory workers of Savar. As such, this
profile represents all female and male workers whom I interviewed for the purpose of this research.
6
For the purpose of clarity I have rounded statistics up or down to the nearest whole.

99
 12.1% 4.9% 9%
20% 15.1% 18%
17.2%
20.7%
24.1%
26.7% 33.3% 30%

55.6% 48.5%
41.4%
40% 36.4% 38%

22.4% 17.2% 19.8% 9.1% 11.2%

5% 5% 13.3% 6.1% 6.1%
0% 0%
EPZ non-EPZ Mean EPZ non-EPZ Mean

Female Male
Upto 17 Years 18-19 20-24 25-29 30 & Above
Figure 5.2: Age-gender distribution of garment factory workers

I would argue that the enactment of the Harkin Bill7 has stopped employment of
child labour to a great extent and brought about changes in the age structure of garment
factory workers. A comparative analysis of workers age structure from surveys in 1990,
1997 (Paul-Majumder & Begum, 2006:17) 8 and the present study shows that the
number of workers up to nineteen years of age has gradually decreased over the years,
while participation of workers between the ages of twenty and twenty-nine years has
increased tremendously (Figure 5.3). Data show that the mean age of female workers of
the 1990 and 1997 survey was nineteen and twenty respectively, which stood at twenty-
three for 161 workers from twenty-five garment factories of my study. Thus, this
workforce can be characterised by its gender specificity as well as by age structure. This
finding does not appear surprising considering the fact that the working age worldwide
is between twenty and forty. Nevertheless, the youngest female worker I interviewed in
this research was fifteen years of age and the oldest was thirty-nine years old, while
amongst the males, the youngest was sixteen years old and the age of the oldest was
forty. Figure 5.4 shows that the majority (65%) of female workers started working in
garment factories during their childhood or adolescence and this finding reflects a
similar pattern to as found in a study by Amin, Diamond, Naved & Newby (1988:188).

7
In 1993 Senator Tom Harkin placed a bill in the US Senate entitled The Child Labor Deterrence Act of
1993 which intended to prohibit the import of goods to the USA produced by child labour (Paul-
Majumder & Begum, 2006:16)
8
The survey 1990 of Paul-Majumder & Begum included 426 female and 245 male garment workers from
32 garment factories while they conducted their 1997 survey on 39 garment factories which included
589 female and 219 male workers.

100
 9.6% 9% 14%
18.4% 14% 18% 25.9% 22% 18%

34.3%
44.9% 69.2%
55.5% 52% 68.6%
58% 68%
63.5%
56.1%
40.7%
25.2% 30% 22.3%
20% 14% 18.2%
10.7%

Female Male Mean Female Male Mean Female Male Mean

Survey 1990 Survey 1997 Present Study

upto 19 years 20-29 years 30 & + years
Figure 5.3: Changes in workers age structure over the years

48.1%
43.1% 45.6%

33.3%

27.6%
30.5%
22.4%

19.2%
16.0%
6.9%

4.7%
2.5%

10-15 years 16-19 years 20-24 years 25-29 years

EPZ non-EPZ Mean

Figure 5.4: Age composition of female factory workers during first job

Education

All factory jobs in EPZs, now require a minimum of lower secondary level (class
VIII) of education, while n-EPZ factory employers do not impose such any restriction
regarding workers educational attainment, although they look for job seekers reading
ability, especially ability to read English numbers. The following quotations highlight
the role of educational requirements in obtaining garment factory jobs. The EPZ factory
worker cited below collected a class VIII pass certificate from her village school,
although interview revealed that she was a primary school dropout. Conventionally,
only when one has successfully completed eight years of education, can one obtain such

101
a certificate from the school, when required. Since these certificates do not entail any
national level recognition, these are rarely verified. Therefore, it is a common practice,
especially in schools in rural areas, that one can obtain a class VIII pass certificate,
without that level of education, if one is acquainted with the school management.
Although, desire for an EPZ job inspired her to collect the certificate, she was not
technically entitled to have one, but her willingness gave her the agency to engage in
such subversive activity. She was a skilled sewing operator and despite her skill, she
failed in her first attempt to obtain such a job, because she did not have that certificate.
The second quotation reveals that the n-EPZ factory worker did not require such any
certificate, but had to prove that she could read English numbers.

In my first attempt for a job here I failed as I told them that I studied up to
class V. I did not know that EPZ factories do not employ anybody without a
minimum level of education of class VIII. [.....] I collected a certificate from
my village school. It is very easy to obtain such a certificate if you spend
some money. [.....] I gave a copy of the certificate with my application in this
factory. I sewed some garment in front of them. They liked my work and gave
me the job. [.....] I am a good sewing operator but I did not get a job in the
previous factory as I did not have any class VIII pass certificate.
-A married female EPZ worker aged 20

I gave an interview and they asked me to read the numbers from an English
datebook. I read and they took me in this factory.
- An unmarried female n-EPZ worker aged 18

I had, however, a few illiterate female respondents from both the EPZ and n-EPZ
factories, while all male workers had a minimum primary level education. Women of
my study had an average of 7.7 years of schooling and this is supportive of other
findings in Bangladesh (Kibria, 1995; Kabeer & Mahmud, 2004). The vast majority of
the workers had formal education, although 9% of them could not read or write and had
never been to school. Nevertheless, data show that the literacy rate among the garment
factory workers (91%) was much higher than that (56%) of the adult population in
Bangladesh as a whole (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2008). Among the female
workers, 33% had lower secondary level education. These women either could not

102
complete education or left school, after attending VI to X classes, while 27% of female
workers were primary school dropouts. The proportion of the female workers who had
completed secondary education was about 17%, while 15% had attained higher
secondary certificate (HSC) or above educational level, the corresponding figures were
39% and 32% respectively for male workers (Figure 5.5).

6.9%
8.6% 15.2% 13.4%
23.4% 32.5%
16.6% 51.5%
37.9% 24.7% 46.6%
32.6% 38.5%
27.2% 30.3%
34.5% 27.2% 26.7%
19.8% 9.1% 17.9%
12.1% 4.9% 8.5% 13.3%
0 9.1%
0 11.2%
0
EPZ non-EPZ Mean EPZ non-EPZ Mean
workers workers workers workers

Female Male

Illiterate Primary Lower Secondary Secondary HSC and above

Figure 5.5: Educational status of factory workers by gender

Data reveal that the upward trends of levels of education among female garment
factory workers are significantly low in comparison to that of male. Among the male
respondents, 71% joined the garment factory with a minimum of secondary level
education, while only 32% of female respondents had this level of education. It was
noted earlier that the vast majority of female workers had taken their first factory job by
the age of nineteen. Interviews reveal that a large number of girls had left secondary
schools for employment in garment factories, due to poverty. Besides, distance to
school, disturbance from delinquent boys on way to and from school etc. jeopardise
female attendance in school. Further, one can at best complete only six to ten years of
schooling by the age within nineteen years, due to late schooling in rural areas. Male
workers, on the other hand, joined garment factories at an older age, with higher
education. Therefore, a gender gap persists in education. Nonetheless, new employees,
irrespective of their gender identity, usually join as helpers in the production line. In the
course of time, enthusiastic workers learn to operate machines and become operators.
Skilled, experienced and more highly educated operators can take up supervisory posts
at managerial level. Therefore, the scope of upward mobility in managerial posts for
women is limited and broader for men as this is influenced by level of education. Thus,
the gender gap in education creates a gender gap in employment and I observed that all

103
supervisors in the two garment factories, in which I worked, were male. Supervisors are
technically skilled managerial level staffs who coordinate the total production process,
which is not possible for any beginner in this field. From her study, Kabeer (1991:152)
argued that women of smart appearance, with secondary level education, were recruited
directly in garment factories as supervisors or promoted rapidly to these posts. My study
does not reflect such a finding.

Marital status

I observed a difference between female and male garment workers regarding their
marital status. Figure 5.6 shows that 63% of male workers were married, compared to
43% of currently married female workers. Data suggest that the mean age at marriage of
these female workers was seventeen years, while the mean age for girls in Bangladesh
at national level is 18.1 years (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2007b). Kabeer
(1997:267) argued that a significant number of female garment workers were divorced,
seperated or had been deserted by their husbands. My study does not support Kabeers
documentation, since the sample population of this study contained only 8% of female
workers who belonged to these groups combined. During fieldwork, I observed that
female workers often tried to hide divorce or desertion, due to cultural inhibition. I
would argue from my own experience as a Bangladeshi and as Dannecker (2002:57)
noted that in such cases, women are often blamed for a failed marriage, not only by their
in-laws but also by their own families and others in their surroundings. Yet, my research
data reveal that EPZ factories employ more married women than do n-EPZ garment
factories, while the proportion of male unmarried wrokers is greater in n-EPZ factories
than that of the EPZ (Figure 5.6).

0 0 0 0
36.7% 63.4%
1.5% 2.1% 3% 2.9%
33.3%
66.7%
40%
1.5%
60% 1.2% 2.9%
48.2% 2.5%
42.5%
53.6% 4.2%
38.3% 1.7% 3.1%
1.7%
42.7% 46.6%

Unmarried Married Widow Divorced Seperated Deserted

Female EPZ workers Female non-EPZ workers Female Mean
Male EPZ workers Male non-EPZ workers Male Mean
Figure 5.6: Marital status of factory workers by gender

104
 In line with other studies, my study reveals that the work structure in garment
factories is favourable to unmarried women (as discussed below) and as such,
employers, especially in n-EPZ factories, prefer them for employment. Overtime work
is mandatory in garment factories and Kabeer (1991:135; 2004:16) argues that
unmarried workers can work long hours with full attention, without anxiety about
family matters. They tend to welcome overtime work as a means of supplementing their
wages, while married women prefer to or need to go home to attend to domestic
responsibilities. Long working hours, in garment factories, make it difficult for them to
combine factory work and caring for their families. As such, female garment workers
are generally unmarried. I would also argue from my data that employers unwillingness
to give maternity benefits is another reason behind their preference for unmarried
women. However, my female sample population constituted 42% currently married and
48% unmarried female workers. Interestingly, within the EPZ factories, the proportion
of married female workers (47%) was more than that of the unmarried (43%) female
workers. Data reveal that the prevalance of changing job, among unmarried workers, is
higher than that of the married. Empirical evidence shows that 21% of married workers,
of my sample population, had changed their job several times, whilst the corresponding
figure for the unmarried workers was 47%. Among the married female workers, 59%
took garment factory jobs after their marriage and 57% of these women were married by
their parents by fifteen years of age, while 31% started their conjugal life at sixteen or
seventeen. The proportion of female workers who started their factory job before
marriage and were married by the age of fifteen was 19%. The proportion of such
workers who were married by sixteen or seventen was 53% and the rest got married at
or after eighteen years of age (Figure 5.7).

18.7%
53.4%

56.6%
31.2% 17.7%
7.7% 7.4% 2.8%
3.3% 1.3%

12-15 years 16-17 years 18 -19 20-24 years 25 & above

years years
Married before job Married after job
Figure 5.7: Age-marriage structure of female garment workers

105
 Traditionally, the parents of a girl, especially in rural Bangladesh, try to marry her,
once she reaches puberty, as she becomes a matter of concern for the family. The
popular perceptions of having such a girl in the family is that she has no demand as a
bride and her parents cannot marry her. To have unmarried matured girls is shameful for
a family, and society does not accord a high status to unmarried girls (Chowdhury,
2004:247). From an economic perspective, marrying a girl is seen as lessening the
burden of the family, whilst from a societal perspective, having such a girl is
humiliating for the entire family, because other villagers interpret it this way. Further, at
marriage, the parents of the bride frequently have to give a dowry to the family of the
bridegroom. Blanchet (1996, cited in op cit.:249) argues that the amount of dowry is
usually smaller when the bride is young. These factors often contribue to the prevalance
of early marriage in rural Bangladesh (Caldwell, et al. 1998:147; Chowdhury,
2004:252). Nevertheless, many families now depend on their female members income
from garment factories, due to lack of resources and a declining familial economic
status. Figure 5.7 shows that the proportion of female garment workers who married
after taking a factory job, are relatively older at marriage, compared to those who
married before starting factory job. This finding reflects those of some other studies in
Bangladesh (Zohir & Paul-Majumder, 1996; Naved, Newby & Amin 2001) and I would
argue that garment factory employment delays marriage, as well as child bearing. The
following quotation of the unmarried female worker, reveals that she would have been a
mother of a few children before twenty, if she had not taken a factory job.

I am the eldest child of my parents. We are five brothers and sisters and my
father does not earn enough to feed us all. [.....] One day, with one of my
neighbours I came to town and started a factory job. [.....] If I lived in the
village I would be a mother of a few children by now. I am better now
because of my job.
- An unmarried female n-EPZ worker aged 20

Data suggest that 47% of those who were married with two or more children,
before taking the job, had not had any more children since they started working. It
indicates that there is a negative correlation between having full time employment in the
factories and child bearing. Interviews reveal that 63% of married female workers either
had someone in the family to look after their children or they left them with other

106
family members in their village home. The spouses of 87% of female workers who took
a factory job after marriage were engaged in diverse wage earning sectors in town other
than working in a factory, while 79% of single female employees married their co-
workers at a later time. In my study, I found that marriage between garment workers
was common.

Residential status

The majority (84%) of garment factory workers of my study migrated to town

from rural areas. The life stories of the workers I interviewed reveal that 87% were
migrants who came to Savar from different parts of the country. This finding supports
other studies on residential status of garment workers in Bangladesh and elsewhere in
the world (Kelly, 1986; Kabeer, 1997; Beek, 2001; Ahmed & Bould, 2004). The
migration data varied for male and female factory workers and statistics suggest that 7%
of male workers were local and the corresponding figure for female was 18%. Moreover,
figure 5.8 shows that 82% and 66% of male and female workers respectively, hailed
from villages of districts other than Dhaka.

81.7%
73.6%
65.5%

17.7%
12.6% 12.2% 10.4%
4.6% 3.5%
7.4% 8.5%
2.4%

Local area Other urban Rural arears of Rural areas of

areas Dhaka districts other districts
Female Male Average
Figure 5.8: Place of origin of garment factory workers by gender

Entry into the garment industry and accommodation in urban areas are
predominantly managed by social networking among family members, relatives,
neighbours and friends (Findley and Williams, 1991, cited in Amin, Diamond, Naved,
& Newby, 1998:188; Afsar, 2001:114). Garment factory workers are actively involved
in social networks, which play an important role in migration. My empirical data

107
suggest that networks provide migrants with information about the opportunities in
cities and food and shelter after arrival. Figure 5.9 shows that 45% of female workers
were associational migrants who came to town with their family members or relatives,
while 43% of them came on their own. My research data suggest that 73% of female
migrants were from poor familial origin and they mainly migrated for economic reasons.
They mostly belonged to families who were functionally landless (had less than half an
acre of land) and thus were less able to meet household needs. Several other studies also
revealed that female labour migration was driven by economic considerations (Lauby &
Stark, 1988; Naved, Newby, & Amin, 2001; Kabeer & Mahmud 2004).

25.6% 17.3% 44.5% 6.5% 4.4% 1.8%

17.3%
45.6% 7.3% 4.3%
23.2% 2.3%

33.8%
43.3% 5.7% 4.5%
11.3% 1.3%

Female Male Mean

Figure 5.9 Reasons for migration by gender

Interviews reveal that young male individuals from rural Bangladesh migrated to
urban areas in search of employment but female individuals did not usually do so,
unless their families could no longer earn a living in their villages. The following
quotation reveals the feeling of a male worker who came to town for employment, as he
preferred a garment factory job to agricultural work.

In the village I used to do agricultural work in the field. Garment work is

much better than burning in the sun or getting wet in the rain.
-An unmarried male n-EPZ worker aged 21

Limited employment opportunities in villages, as the following quotation reveals,

force women to move to urban regions for jobs. This woman took a factory job, as she

108
belonged to a distressed family, due to her divorce. The custom of dowry is by law
prohibited in Bangladesh, although it is culturally practised as demand from the
bridegroom party. Marriage does not take place if the demands are not agreed upon and
inability to meet agreed upon demands often results in harassment, abuse and even
divorce, as happened to this woman. In Bangladeshi society, girls are brought up by
their parents and transferred to other families through marriage (Chowdhury, 2004:247).
After divorce, women have to go back to their parents or brothers and depend on them
for survival, since womens independent living is hardly accepted in Bangladesh
(Naved, Newby, & Amin, 2001:94-95). However, they have to manage their own living
if their natal families cannot provide them with material necessities. Because of limited
opportunities in villages, women in a situation similar to the woman quoted in the
following narrative, migrate from rural areas independently.

The first few months in my husbands family were nice and then they started
demanding dowry. My widowed mother had no money so they began
torturing me. My husband used to listen to my in-laws and beat me even
when I was pregnant. [.....] Everybody in the family was angrier with me as I
gave birth to a girl child. It was also my fault. My husband married again
and divorced me when my daughter was 7 months old. [.....] I went to my
mother who at that time was living in her fathers village with my other
sister. My sister had three kids. My brother in-law was a day labourer and I
knew that they did not have enough earnings to feed me or my daughter. [.....]
So I came to Dhaka leaving my daughter with my mother in the village. One
of my cousins lived here and worked in a garment factory. I told her that I
wanted to stay and work. She helped me get a job in her factory. After a
couple of months my mother joined me here with my daughter. [.....] My
mother takes care of my daughter and I work. In the village there was no
possibility for me to earn a living.
-A divorced female EPZ worker aged 26

Declining employment opportunities in rural areas is the prominent push factor in

rural-urban migration and the establishment of manufacturing units, along with
availability of jobs in urban areas, are important pull factors. Empirical evidence
suggests that mechanisation of post-harvest agricultural operation in Bangladesh has

109
marginalised women in agricultural production. This situation has increased womens
migration to urban areas (Boserup, 1970). Data from my study show that 69% of male
migrants moved to town for employment, while the corresponding figure for female
migrants was 55%. Of the interviewed female migrants, 21% came to town, when their
families moved, as a strategy of survival and in such cases, as the data reveal, they had
no role in the familys migratory decisions. This is evident from the quotation below,
which reveals that the woman migrated to town with her family and afterwards took a
factory job with the aim of helping the family.

I came to Dhaka when my family moved. We have no land and my father

used to work as a day labourer in the village. We had very hard times there
and once my father decided to move here. [.....] My father is a rickshaw
puller here. It is a very hard task and sometimes we starve when he is ill. I
have two other small sisters and two brothers. My father does not earn
enough to feed us all. Therefore, I started working in a garment factory. [.....]
My neighbours helped me find a job.
- An unmarried female EPZ worker aged 19

A number of female workers came to town to work in the households of their

distant relatives. Based on my own experience as a Bangladeshi and from anecdotal
evidence, I would argue that taking children of poor relatives by richer families for
household labour is a very common practice in Bangladesh. My sample population
constituted 11% of female workers who migrated to town as housemaids and received
hardly any money for their work or had little or no chance to go to school. Later, they
started a factory job with permission from their relatives who forced them to give part
of their salary for food and accommodation, although they performed household work at
night. In this situation, they developed their own networks and friendship ties to find
new living arrangements to distance themselves from their relatives. Some migrant
women (11%) stated that their idea of working in garment factories developed during
their time in city. A few of them (6%) came to town for study and were living with their
relatives, mainly married brothers and sisters. Some others (5%) came to visit their
relatives living in urban areas. These women explored the possibilities of urban living,
while they were in town and negotiated with their families at a later time. This group of
women was a bit older and had a higher educational background. Data reveal that

110
propensity to migrate was higher among young and educated women, as they were more
aware of the opportunities available in urban areas and were better able to benefit from
them. However, the first negotiation that these women, who migrated on their own, had
to make at household level was about their decision to migrate. A significant number of
these women (39%) faced opposition from their respective family members, since
people talk badly about garment factory workers or because of their perception that
women get spoilt if they work in garment factories. Due to their employment in
garment factories, women often come home at night, which people perceive to be
unbecoming of a good woman. Moreover, women interact with men during work and
this also is considered bad for them. My data reveal that these societal perceptions
created a negative impression of female garment factory workers. Nevertheless, some of
the women (6%) opposed their husbands desires and migrated to town for jobs and
most of their spouses joined them in urban areas. Thus, women irrespective of their
marital status migrated to town. It is indeed very significant in a society like Bangladesh,
where they are often expected to observe purdah. Data from my research reveal that
mostly, economic needs of the family forced them to migrate and break purdah norms.

Living arrangement in urban areas

Patterns of migration, as well as marital status, determine housing arrangements in

urban areas. Empirical data suggest that those who were associational migrants and
were married lived in a familial situation, while others lived with friends and relatives
and thus, rural urban migration has caused different types of household patterns.
Previous studies showed that the majority of migrants and migrated women in particular,
lived with their family members and relatives (Kibria, 1995:296; Zohir & Paul-
Majumder, 1996:91). Living with family members and relatives is a common practice
among female migrant workers and those who are able to arrange such accommodation
do so. Figure 5.10 shows that 60% of female migrants and 49% of male migrants lived
with their respective families. This finding is supportive of previous studies and thus
data reveal that the majority of garments workers I interviewed in this study depended
largely on their family members and lived in conventionally structured households,
headed by husbands or male family elders.

111
 38.2%
35.3%

25.2%
22.2% 21.6%

14% 15.1%
10.8%
6.7%
4.9%
2.7% 3.4%

Single Live with Live with Branch Live with Live with
household parents spouse family relatives co-workers

Female Male
Figure 5.10 Urban living arrangements of garment workers by gender

Although, as was mentioned earlier, the notion of women living on their own or in
non-familial situations in Bangladesh was not yet widely accepted, data show that 7%
of female migrants were living in town on their own, in sub-let arrangements, without
any male guardian. This is indeed an important social change that has taken place in
Bangladesh, with the advent of garment factories. Previous studies also reported such
accommodation patterns for female migrants (Kibria, 1995; Zohir & Paul-Majumder,
1996; Naved, Newby, & Amin, 2001; Kabeer & Mahmud, 2004). Landlords and men in
particular, in such situations, take over the role of guardians, since a fundamental aspect
of mans role in Bangladeshi society is guardianship. Older people, especially men in
Bangladesh, usually perceive themselves as responsible for the moral status of women.
The following quotation reveals that this pattern is reproduced in urban areas and
women living on their own are often exposed to social control, established through
landlords in the absence of their familial guardians. Furthermore, interviews reveal that
their movements were controlled by the landlord and/or his wife.

I live in a rented single room. Both my landlord and his wife are very strict.
They always tell me that I should not go out and speak with people in the
streets. [.....] If any male relative or friend comes to visit me he has to wait
outside the gate and usually talk with my landlord first. The visitor can come
in if they are convinced. [.....] My landlord and his wife always say whatever
you do outside is your matter but inside the house it is our responsibility.
- An unmarried female EPZ worker aged 21

112
 Independent migration by women for garment factory jobs has brought about
changes in housing arrangements in urban areas and single person households and
branch or divided households (households some of whose members live elsewhere)
have emerged. Data show that 25% of female migrants lived in branch households,
while 5% of them lived with their relatives. Empirical evidence suggests that there was
a marked difference in accommodation arrangements between female and male
migrants. Female migrants predominantly lived in a familial situation, while male
workers usually lived with family, as well as on their own. A familial living
arrangement provides women with necessary social security from theft and other
problematic incidents. Interviews reveal that such an arrangement gave them moral
support and some services like child-care, which enabled them to work. A few of the
female participants reported that local mastans (unruly people) and touts (cheaters)
sometimes bothered them at their home. Moreover, a number of them experienced theft
in their houses while away for work. Data suggest that familial living arrangements
protected women from these inconveniences. Messing or living in a shared room was
common for male workers. However, 3% of female migrants were found living in such
housing arrangements, where five or six women rented a large room and shared together
to live in urban areas. Empirical evidence shows that migrant workers often rented
cheap rooms in a large house. They shared toilets, bathrooms and kitchen with five to
ten families. The rent for each room usually varied from BDT 350 (US$ 59) to BDT
1000 (US$ 15) per month depending on size, structure and available facilities. Most of
these houses had tube wells and electricity, while a few had gas burners. Data suggest
that the bulk of the workers, irrespective of their housing structure, lived in one room
accommodation. Those who lived in familial situations shared a room with four to five
family members or relatives and co-workers. Only 3% of such workers had two rented
rooms to live, where the husband had two wives. It is noteworthy that men in
Bangladesh can legally keep four wives at a time, although it is rarely practised. Among
the migrant female workers, 23% used an open bathroom with no water supply facility
for bathing. Interviews reveal that whilst there were available houses, equipped with all
basic amenities for private use of a single family, these were beyond the budget of these
migrant workers. As such, they lived in such housing arrangements as a cost-saving
strategy.

9
During my field work US$ 1 was equivalent to approximately BDT (Bangladesh Taka) 69.

113
Reasons for taking the job

Data from my research suggest that tremendous pressures of poverty forced many
women in rural Bangladesh to violate traditional cultural values and take paid
employment. The coming of garment factories has widened employment opportunities
for women and since the mid 1980s large numbers of unaccompanied rural women
began occupying urban spaces through migratory processes. Interviews with garment
workers reveal the cause of their migration to urban areas and show interesting links
between migration, urban housing arrangements and formal sector employment.
Empirical evidence suggests that, primarily, economic need propelled Bangladeshi
women into factory employment and compelled them to break the purdah norms. This
finding confirms those of other studies conducted in Bangladesh (Kabeer, 1991, 2004;
Kibria, 1995; Ahmed & Bould, 2004). Data reveal that socio-cultural factors also
motivated women, to an extent, to enter into paid employment. Thus, my finding
supports the articulations of Lim (1990) and Standing (1992) when they suggest that
economic need, as well as social and cultural factors, inspires women to enter into paid
employment. They argued that women desired factory jobs as they wanted to utilise
their education and also wanted the company of their friends, while my data reveal that
husbands demand for dowry worked as the underlying cause for some women to take
such a job. As was noted previously, the custom of dowry is culturally practised in
Bangladesh, although it is legally prohibited. Moreover, my research data reveal that
women sought waged work as a part of their household strategy. Their participation in
the formal labour market was thus largely a response to the economic necessity of their
respective families.

Three types of explanations related to familial economic needs were apparent in

womens accounts of why they had taken a garment job. The most widespread
explanation from them was that they took a factory job to support their family. Figure
5.11 shows that 54% of women, irrespective of their marital status and urban living
arrangements, offered this explanation that they were working in garment factories to
support their families financially. In some cases, their income was spent on basic family
needs, while in other cases it was earmarked for special purposes, such as house rent,
tuition for children education etc. Data suggest that adult males of these households
were mostly day labourers, rickshaw pullers and small scale traders. Further, some of

114
the households of these women had fathers or husbands who were seasonally employed.
This group of women belonged to extremely poor households and the majority of them,
before taking a garment factory job, participated in paid work, such as domestic service,
agricultural work, brick breaking, building construction etc. Entry into garment factories
was an occupational shift for them. They took the factory job, as it was a preferred form
of employment, which paid higher wages and had better working conditions than those
of their previous jobs.

57.7%
49.5% 53.6%

26.9%
21.1%
17.3%
13.6% 11.6%
9.6% 9.3% 9.7% 9.5%
3.3% 5.1% 4.2%

Support family Family survival Husband Help better Support self

living desires family living
EPZ non-EPZ Average
Figure 5.11 Reasons of taking paid employment

The quotation of the following respondent reveals that her mothers factory job
was the only means for their family to make a living, while she took the job of a maid
servant, with a view to supporting her family, since scarcity propelled them. Her
experience as a maid servant was very painful and for this reason she also started a
factory job with her mother at a very early age. She viewed her factory job as being
much better than her previous job.

In the village we were struggling with our living. My father was a day
labourer and my mother worked in our neighbouring houses. We had a piece
of homestead as our only asset. The death of my father intensified our
struggle for food. My mother used to bring all her food she got from her
work but that was very nominal. We had very hard times there. [.....] One of
our distant relatives advised us to move to Dhaka. He was a supervisor in a
garment factory. He arranged a room for our living in a squatter and a job
for my mother in his factory. My mother started the job of a helper but she

115
 did not earn enough to meet all our needs. One of our neighbours in the
squatter arranged a job as maid servant for me in a house. [.....] It was a lot
of pressure there and I had to work all day and night. There was no time to
rest and beating was common in that house. So one day I escaped that house
and came to my mother. Life here is very difficult. You have to pay for
everything. [.....] So one day I told my mother that I wanted to work with her
in the garment factory. She took me to the factory and I started my new life
as a helper before my puberty (sabalok). We two now earn for our family
and my only sister is studying at a local school. [.....] A garment job is much
better than domestic work.
-An unmarried female n-EPZ worker aged 17

Sudden adversity because of the death of earning male family members, inability
to work due to illness, collapse of business, loss of land etc., propelled 21% of female
workers into employment. This group of women took waged employment, as a strategy
to cope with crisis, because of familial adversities that made their family status
vulnerable to downward mobility. They had no choice but to start earning for their
family to avoid decline into the ranks of poor families. A few of the households in this
group were female headed, where there were no males due to death, divorce or desertion.
Most of these workers, before starting these jobs, either were housewives or students.
The majority of them faced opposition from their family members to their decision to
enter a garment factory. This opposition was because of traditional cultural values that
womens work was contrary to social norms and threatening to family honour. Women
had to pursue and convince their family members, to allow them to take formal sector
employment, which was not easy for many of them. However, for some there was no
resistance, as in the case of the following woman, as she explained her situation.

She, like some other women, was displaced to town, because of sudden familial
adversity. These women did not belong to the poorest group, although they became
distressed, and economic scarcity became a major issue of concern for their family, as it
was a question of survival. Taking a factory job, for women like her, was an effort to
maintain their family status as the following narrative articulates.

116
 My husband was a petty trader in our village. He had no shop of his own.
He moved from bazaar to bazaar and did his business under the sky. During
rainy season it was very difficult for him to run his business. [.....] He used
to take loan from a local NGO to do his business. At the end of every week
he had to pay back instalments. He was doing very well and once the NGO
people advised my husband to take money from them to rent a shop in our
village bazaar. He took a term loan from the NGO and started a new
business. [.....] We had very good times. We used to send our two sons to
school. I had lots of dreams for them. [.....] One night there was a fire in the
shopping centre and our shop with many other shops in the supermarket
burnt into ashes. Overnight we became street beggars. We lost everything
but we had an obligation to repay the NGO loan. You cannot even die before
paying NGO loans back. [.....] We deposited all our valuables and the deeds
of the homestead with the NGO and then came to town with our three kids.
We had no option in the village. [.....] One of our village neighbours helped
me find a factory job. Now I am a sewing operator. My husband is a
rickshaw puller. We pay the NGO instalments every month. We also save
some for our future. We hope to start again in our village.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 27

This woman intended to go back to the village once she had adequate savings
after repaying the NGO loan, while for some others, taking a factory job was an effort
for them to meet their husbands demand for money. In their accounts of why they had
come to work in a garment factory, about 12% of the workers articulated that their
husbands forced them to take a factory job. Many of these women indicated that their
income was used for their familial basic needs, although they identified their husbands
as the main family earner. In most of the cases, their husbands had regular employment
and supported their natal families. Data reveal that some men had more than one wife
and they did not work, but took the income of their wives forcibly. The following
quotation reveals that demand for money from her husband forced this woman to take a
factory job. She gave all her salary to her violent husband and thus, tried to fulfil the
demand of her husband for money from her father. She was doing the job against her
will, as she wanted to save herself, as well as her father, from adversity.

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 My parents married me giving BDT 20,000 (US$ 291) as dowry to my
husband. After a couple of months of marriage my husband started
demanding more money from my father. My father took a loan from a local
NGO during my wedding to meet all costs including dowry. He is the only
earner of a five member family and had to pay the regular NGO instalment
every month. It was not possible for him to give more money to my husband.
[.....] My husband is a rickshaw puller. He is very lazy and does not work
regularly. We had hard times here at that time. [.....] I tried to make him
understand my fathers condition. He became angrier and insisted on me
bringing money from my father. Once he started torturing me for money. I
stood for everything for the sake of my natal family. [.....] One day my father
came to see me here. He behaved very badly with my father and demanded
money from him. My father sold some of his land and gave my husband BDT
10,000 (US$ 145). [.....] After a couple of months he again started
demanding money and treating me badly. Once I lost myself and wanted to
know about the money my father gave him last time. He became more
arrogant and beat me inhumanly. He was very cruel [....] and asked me to
go away if I could not bring him money from my father. I discussed my
situation with one of my neighbours. She advised me to take a factory job to
meet my husbands demand for money. [.....] I give my husband all my
income and he does not beat me anymore. But I do not like factory work. It is
very hard and tiring.
-A married female EPZ worker aged 21

Some women (10%) entered into a garment factory job with a view to enhancing
the economic condition and standard of living of their families. The motive of these
women, for taking a job, was to finance their childrens educational costs and other
familial needs. A small portion (4%) took a factory job to meet their own needs, with a
view to lessening their family burdens. Both these groups of women had resistance from
their family members, to their entering factory production, as traditionally there is a link
between purdah and male honour in Bangladesh. Status considerations are violated
when women work outside the home, since having any working woman in the family
means male members cannot afford to support them (Feldman & McCarthy, 1983:952;
White, 1992:84, Siddiqui, 2000:16; Kabeer, 2004:142; Salway, Jesmin & Rahman,

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2005:342). However, they were able to go beyond this resistance to start a factory job.
In their accounts of why they took a garment job, instead of any other, to meet their
familial economic needs, the most prevalent reason they identified was the availability
of such jobs. More than half the female workers (51%) articulated that a garment
factory job was most easy to obtain, and anybody could get one, without any prior
experience. Empirical data suggest that formal educational attainment was not
mandatory for obtaining these jobs, to an extent. One can work in garment factories
with minimum or even no formal education. At the same time, lack of required
educational attainment was a matter of disqualification for a few women who tried for a
job in other sectors. These women articulated that they took a garment job, as they had
no other choice in the job market, due to lacking the required educational qualifications.
Employment in garment factories is better than many other jobs available for women,
such as domestic work, brick breaking or building construction and 17% of female
workers preferred garment factory jobs, because of a better working environment. Data
reveal that 5% of women liked a factory job, as it gave them a flavour of a modern
working environment and monthly pay.

Access and recruitment strategies

The role of information and social networks is very important in obtaining a

garment factory job. My study suggests that the majority of workers I interviewed
entered into the factory job with help from their relatives, friends from the village of
origin or neighbours. They had no problem getting a job, as they had acquaintances in
urban areas. Personal relations and linkages were very important for them to become
garment workers. This finding confirms other studies in Bangladesh (Dannecker, 2002;
Afsar, 2002). Information about job vacancies is a practical help for a newcomer and the
most effective source of information, for 67% of female workers, was their friends,
relatives and neighbours, living in town. The following quotation illustrates that kinship
ties gave this woman some sort of feeling of security and shelter in an environment that
was completely new to her. Her relatives helped her find a job. Thus, networks play an
important role in providing job opportunities for women.

I came to Dhaka with my daughter two years back. Some of my distant

relatives living here arranged a room for us here and a job for me in a

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 garment factory with them. [.....] After a couple of months I took my
daughter to the factory to work with me. My supervisor was good and took
my daughter in the factory. [.....] I took her as it was safe for her to be
with me all the time. I always felt here safe as my relatives helped me a lot
since I came.
- A deserted female n-EPZ worker aged 31

Management, in most cases, asks the workers to bring their friends and relatives
to fill up vacancies. Managements reliance on workers for filling up vacancies is, I
would argue, their strategy to retain workers. It is likely that workers will not leave a
factory if they have friends and relatives as their co-workers. As a factory worker, I
experienced that employee turnover is very high in garment factories, since women
move between factories seeking the most favourable conditions for them. As such,
employee shortage is very common. However, another strategy management adopts is
posting advertisements for vacant positions on notice boards outside the factory and
other places. Gate advertisements were the source of information about job vacancies
for 31% of female workers. Interviews reveal that a small segment of workers (2%) had
kinship and locality ties with the entrepreneurs. Feldman (1992:123) argued that a large
portion of female factory workers came from the owners home village kin groups and
this recruitment strategy tied them to some form of social obligation to continue
working in their factories. In addition, it ensured the owners guardianship and
patriarchal control over the workers, which once was limited to immediate male family
elders. My empirical data suggest that relatives living in urban areas assist new entrants
in garment factories and the patron-client relationship, as Feldman observed, is now
replaced by social networks. I would argue that the tremendous growth of the garment
sector, the involvement of large numbers of workers and their economic necessity, have
changed the pattern and recruitment strategy that Feldman found in her study.
Nonetheless, all workers gave a written application for their desired posts, mentioning
their age, address, marital status, education and experiences. Data suggest that the
majority of workers (71%) obtained appointment letters outlining terms and conditions
of work, wages and other relevant matters, while all workers had identity cards as proof
of their employment in their respective factories.

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Working conditions

Empirical evidence suggests that working conditions varied in EPZ and n-EPZ
factories. I observed certain work-related problems in the factories in which I worked,
and the majority of workers also mentioned these. In the following section, I discuss
working hours and wages, wage-related and non-wage benefits as well as physical
conditions and safety measures in garment factories.

Working hours

Interviews reveal that the majority of factories continue production for ten to
fourteen hours a day and sixty to ninety eight hours a week, even more in some cases.
During my entire employment period in the n-EPZ factory, we worked from 8am until
11pm with one hour lunch break (the only break in fifteen hours) and seven days a week.
In the EPZ factory we had a weekly holiday and our working hours were from 7.30am
to 8pm with thirty minutes lunch break, although my co-workers here articulated that
previously they worked on holidays also. Overtime work is a regular phenomenon in a
garment factory job and it varies between factories. Data reveal that after eight hours
usual working time, EPZ factory workers frequently do two to four hours overtime
every day, whilst in n-EPZ factories it is four to six hours and throughout the day
workers can enjoy only a lunch break of thirty to sixty minutes. Previous studies
revealed that working hours in export-oriented factories worldwide were higher than
comparable working hours in any other sector. Addison and Demery (1988:379)
collected data from some East Asian countries and concluded that working hours in the
export sector were much higher than the government mandated hours. I found a similar
pattern in this research in terms of factory working hours. Law permits garment
entrepreneurs six working days and sixty working hours with a maximum of twelve
hours overtime a week (Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority, 1989; Ministry
of Labour and Employment, 2006a). Nevertheless, entrepreneurs hardly followed
government rules and interestingly, I observed that none of the workers complained
about overtime work. The majority of them (73%) welcomed overtime work, as it
brought them more wages, even though some of them complained that they were not
informed in advance, when they would be required to stay longer. However, this
situation, especially for married women, created problems at home, since they were
expected to cook in the evenings for the family. A significant number of workers (23%)

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stated that their husbands or parents did not believe them and accused them of walking
around the street or visiting their friends. Paul-Majumder & Begum (2006) argue that
long working hours was a stress factor for the workers. They could not manage time for
rest, recreation and adequate sleep.

Wage benefits

The government of Bangladesh has fixed minimum wages for both EPZ and n-
EPZ factory workers (Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority, 1989; Ministry
of Labour and Employment, 2006b). Their monthly minimum wages include a basic, 30%
of basic as house allowance and BDT 200 (US$ 3) as medical allowance. The
government permits factory management to work overtime at double the basic hourly
pay. Data reveal that factory managements rarely followed the government prescribed
minimum wage rule, including date of payment. Monthly wages, including overtime
bills and other allowances, are supposed to be paid by the 10th day at the latest of the
following month. However, empirical data suggests that workers frequently received
lower than the minimum wages, for their respective grades10. The majority of workers
(67%) reported that they were aware of the minimum wages for their grade and received
less per month than the wages fixed. Yet, hardly any of these workers expressed
dissatisfaction with their take home salaries. Instead, 87% of them complained about
irregular payment of their wages. They articulated that they got paid their wages on
varied dates. Additionally, they and especially the n-EPZ garment workers often did not
get their overtime bills with salary, which sometimes remained due. This is evident
from the following quotation. This woman rarely got salary on her expected date, while
her overtime bills regularly remained due. Interviews reveal that payment of salary on
varied dates and non-payment of overtime wages with salary in n-EPZ factories created
difficult situations for women, especially those who lived on their own or had

10
Government of Bangladesh fixed minimum wages for workers of various levels in both EPZ and non-
EPZ factories. The monthly minimum wages for Grade-III (Senior Operator/Quality Inspector, etc.),
Grade-IV (Operator/Cutter/Quality Inspector etc.), Grade-V (Junior Machine operator/Iron Man, etc.),
Grade-VI (Junior Operator) and Grade-VII (Helper/Apprentice) workers of EPZ factories has been
fixed US$ 50, US$ 45, US$ 40, US$ 35 and US$ 25/30 respectively. In the non-EPZ factories their
salary is respectively Tk. 2449 (US$ 36), Tk. 2250 (US$ 33), Tk. 2046 (US$ 30), Tk. 1851 (US$ 27)
and Tk. 1662 (US$ 24). It is evident that there is a big difference between the salaries of EPZ and non-
EPZ factories. Moreover, interviews reveal that employers often do not follow the minimum wages
rules and workers frequently got less than the government prescribed minimum wages in both EPZ and
non-EPZ factories. However, workers prefer EPZ factories to non-EPZ factories since they provide
better wages and opportunities. (Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) Instructions
I & II, 1989; Ministry of Labour and Employment, 2006).

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dependants with them. Under these circumstances they had to depend on the mercy of
other people like the landlord, shopkeepers, etc., for their living. This situation indeed
creates insecurity for the workers and they cannot organise their lives as they planned to.

I expect my wages by the end of the first week of every month. But there is
no fixed date. Sometimes they pay during the second week and last month it
was during the end of the third week. They pay overtime bills during the
fourth week and now it is due for the last two months. [.....] At times I get
less overtime wages than is due for the actual hours I did. They always
deduct money from monthly salary if we are late and everywhere it is same.
- A married female n-EPZ worker aged 21

This woman, like many others, often got paid less for her overtime work and this
is a common problem workers frequently face, especially in n-EPZ factories. Another
problem, this woman articulated, is the deduction of money from salary. Data reveal
that garment factory workers were familiar with the practice of cutting salary as
punishment if they came late or failed to fulfil production targets. Supervisors impose
this punishment immediately and thus salaries are used as a strategy to implement
factory rules and regulations. It is a method of punishment as well as reward for them.
Interviews suggest that the most loyal had a better chance to receive their salary and
overtime bills, while protesters risked their dues being cut. Nonetheless, data reveal that
workers seemed more concerned about timely payment of their dues, than minimum
wages or wage deduction.

Wage related benefits

There is an institutionalised system of reward and recognition in most of the

factories. In both EPZ and n-EPZ factories, I found an announcement of a monthly
special bonus, for the group of workers who could fulfil their target on time. Other
factory workers also voiced the existence of this system of special bonus. The existence
of such a method of boosting workers productivity, as I observed in my research, is not
consistent with what Dannecker (2002:130) found in her study. She argued that workers
were controlled by threats and intimidation. Nevertheless, the massive growth of the
garment sector, in Bangladesh, has created ample job opportunities for workers. As such,

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I would argue that management, induced by increased competition, now values workers
experience and tries to induce them by various types of bonuses instead of coercion.

An attendance bonus is provided in all factories. This system discourages workers

late presence or absenteeism, as three late attendances cost them this bonus, while one
absence costs them both attendance bonus and the days basic salary. Data suggest that
each year, garment factory workers enjoy two festival allowances, equivalent to two
months basic salary. By law they are entitled to have a minimum of 10% annual
increment over their salary. However, both EPZ and n-EPZ factory workers stated that
the amount of their yearly increment mostly depended on the desires of their supervisors.

Non-wage benefits

A married female worker completing a minimum of six months service in a

factory is entitled, on application, to maternity leave with full basic pay for eight weeks
before and eight weeks after the confinement. This benefit may be granted only twice to
a woman, over her service period, with a gap of three years in between (Bangladesh
Export Processing Zones Authority, 1989; Ministry of Labour and Employment, 2006a).
All female workers I interviewed in this study, irrespective of their marital status, knew
about this provision. They articulated that maternity leave was implemented in EPZ
factories, while n-EPZ factories were reluctant. This is evident from the following
quotation, when this woman states that she enjoyed maternity benefits during her job in
the EPZ factory, while she had to leave her n-EPZ factory job due to pregnancy, as they
did not give her maternity benefits.

During my first pregnancy period I worked in a non-EPZ factory. They did

not give me maternity benefits and I had to resign although they told me that
they would take me again. [.....] My second child was born during my job in
this factory. I got paid four months basic salary and leave for 112 days.
- A married female EPZ worker aged 24

The provision of canteen facilities within factory compounds has been a norm.
Data reveal that all garment factories had canteen facilities, and in most cases,
management provided lunch or gave lunch allowances. The allocation of money for

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lunch varied from BDT 12 (US$ 0.17) to BDT 18 (US$ 0.26). Workers expressed their
dissatisfaction with the quality of food that management provided, and most of them
favoured a lunch allowance. They preferred lunch allowances, as it would increase their
take home salary. Moreover, canteens in some of the n-EPZ factories did not have
enough space and interviews reveal that not all workers could take their food there.

Availability of child care facilities is another common feature in garment factories

and those who do not have anybody in the home to care for their children availed
themselves of this facility. Others argued that their children felt better in their home and
hence they did not use this facility. Data reveal that factory managements provide child
care facilities at their own cost, since the provision of child care facilities in factory
compounds is one of the requirements, set by the Western buyers, which they have to
follow. Nonetheless, the majority of workers (83%) stated that they were not allowed to
see their children in the childcare centre during work. Obviously, such a restriction
discourages women from using child care facilities inside the factory.

Most of the factories provide buses or transport allowances. Commuting to

factories by factory buses is the preferred mode of transport for the workers. Data
suggest that workers themselves collectively hired buses where management gave them
transport allowances. They preferred such an arrangement, since it ensured their on-time
presence in the office, saved them time and money and provided safety on the street.

Garment workers, by law, are entitled to enjoy casual leave (ten days in a year
with full pay), earned leave (one day for every 22 days), festival leave (eleven days in a
year with full pay), sick leave (fourteen days in a year with full pay), weekly holiday
and a day off during the week for working on weekly holidays (Bangladesh Export
Processing Zones Authority, 1989; Ministry of Labour and Employment, 2006a). It is
worth mentioning that Fridays and Saturdays are public holidays in Bangladesh,
although Fridays are the only weekend for export-oriented industries, since these
industries work six days a week. Interviews reveal that the EPZ factory workers had
more weekly holidays and more paid leave facilities, while the majority of n-EPZ
factory workers said that they rarely enjoyed these leaves. Workers from both EPZ and
n-EPZ factories expressed their grievances that they were allowed six days festival
leave with full pay and for the rest of the days enjoyed during festival occasions, they

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had to work on subsequent weekends without any overtime pay. The majority of
workers (85%) said that they never got any day off, although they were paid overtime
for working holidays. However, it is obvious that there was no opportunity for them to
recover strength they lost during working days. Furthermore, workers continued work
even when they were sick, since they could not enjoy leave facilities. This situation
aggravated their sickness further. As such, workers absenteeism in garment factories
was a common matter, which in turn, affected factory productivity.

Physical conditions and safety measures

A number of previous studies reported that physical conditions and safety

measures in garment factories were very poor (Hossain, Jahan & Sobhan, 1990:66;
Butler & Teagarden, 1993:486; Zohir & Paul-Majumder, 1996:107). Researchers
suggested that most of the garment factories were inadequately ventilated. They had
inadequate and unhygienic toilet facilities and were often missing canteen facilities.
They did not have adequate safety equipment and medical care. My research data are
mostly contrary to what other studies revealed. None of the workers complained about
the physical conditions and safety measures of their respective garment factories which,
I would argue, are purpose-built buildings with relatively good working conditions.
Foreign buyers now frequently visit garment factories and perhaps their frequent and
regular inspections prompted better working conditions in garment factories. Siddiqi
(2009:170) argues that buyers accountability to Northern consumers and labour rights
groups accounts for their frequent visits to garment factories. Previously, garment
production would take place in hired buildings, which had very poor physical conditions
and safety measures. However, most of the recent factories have windows from all sides
and adequate exhaust fans, which clean the air and keep the production floor cold. As I
observed and the majority of workers stated, factory buildings had very wide and
separate staircases for women and men. They used separate toilets and none of them
complained about the number of toilets, nor did they require permission to go to the
toilet. Employers were very conscious about cleanliness and there were designated
cleaners on the factory floor who cleaned the workroom and toilets at regular intervals.
Workers also were not allowed to eat anything and had to use separate shoes inside the
factories. Data suggest that a first aid box was installed on each factory floor, although
these were not well equipped and there were no trained persons to handle them. Factory

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buildings were equipped with a fire fighting system and each floor had a few male
workers who received training on fire fighting. The majority of workers (83%) reported
that they at least had one female qualified doctor in the factory compound and a
dispensary, although they provided very limited medicine. Management in some
factories, sometimes, during working hours, played music as a means of entertainment.
Most of the workers (67%) appreciated music during work, as it broke the monotony of
the incessant noise of sewing machines. Thus, my research findings demonstrate that
physical conditions and safety measures of garment factories of Savar were much better
than previous studies revealed.

Conclusion

Women in Bangladesh have traditionally participated in productive activity at the

household level. Declining economic status and erosion of living standards led them to
paid work, breaking the norms of purdah. They migrated from the countryside in search
of employment, specifically in export-oriented garment factories. The majority of them
(70%) were young women. Entry into garment factories requires some academic
attainments and most of them (91%) had some formal education. They constituted both
unmarried and married women who predominantly came from impoverished households,
reliant on income from labour, although some women did not necessarily belong to the
poorest of the poor. A few of them (8%) were widowed, divorced, deserted or separated.
A good number of them (43%) migrated on their own and a few of them (7%) lived in
single households. The majority of female workers (57%) migrated with their family
members, relatives or acquaintances and familial situation was the preferred mode of
living for most of them (93%). For many of them (54%) a factory job was their effort to
support their family livelihood, while for some of them (21%) employment was their
response to cope with a crisis situation. A few of the workers (12%) were forced to
work by their husbands, while some others (10%) took a factory job to enhance their
familys standard of living. Nevertheless, the majority of women (79%) who migrated
on their own had to negotiate with their family members, in their way. Most of them
(67%) got assistance, from their relatives, friends and neighbours, once they were in
urban areas, to get a job. Thus, it is evident that rural-urban migration patterns and
employment in garment factories have changed household arrangements and caused the
emergence of atypical households in urban areas.

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 The majority of garment factory workers (71%) received formal appointment
letters, which mentioned terms and conditions of employment, while they all had an
identity card as a proof of their employment in their respective factories. Their working
hours were higher than those of any other export sector job. However, working
conditions in EPZ factories were much better than those of the n-EPZ factories. The
EPZ factory workers enjoyed more benefits with regularity in the payment of wages and
overtime bills. The n-EPZ factory workers received their wages on varied dates. They
received their overtime payments irregularly, and at times, they remained overdue.
Although physical conditions and safety measures were comparatively good in all
garment factories, workers mostly preferred EPZ factories because of better working
conditions and benefits. The subsequent three chapters present an analysis of the
empirical data that I obtained from the field. The first analysis chapter concentrates on
discussing the thematic issues linked to womens coming into the job.

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 Chapter VI: The new economic actors: perceptions
and experiences of employment

Introduction

Womens participation in productive tasks, at household level in Bangladesh,

rural areas in particular, has traditionally been a common phenomenon. The demand to
meet family needs has required womens labour in maintaining the family and in
fulfilling a wide range of productive activities (Feldman and McCarthy, 1983:951). In
addition to their reproductive and household management works, their responsibilities
have traditionally included the processing of all crops, care and feeding of livestock,
rearing of poultry, growing of vegetables and all other tasks performed at household
level. Their activities have traditionally kept them confined within the household
compound with other women, while men work with other men beyond the household
(Papanek, 1971, 1973). Patriarchy, a social system of male domination and female
subordination, supported by the institution of purdah, has segregated the world of
women and men in Bangladeshi society. Nonetheless, extensive poverty has eroded the
traditional system of familial organisation in post-independent Bangladesh and since the
1970s, womens participation in wage earning activities for survival has been a
continuously increasing feature. Prior to the advent of garment factories in the 1980s,
there were relatively few employment opportunities for Bangladeshi women, especially
in the formal sector of the economy, although they had some limited opportunities in the
informal labour market. In their quest to earn an income, rural poor women during that
time used to participate in the processing of agricultural products, jobs which were
seasonal, unstable and low paid. Still, the mechanisation of agriculture further
diminished their limited earning opportunities (Hossain, Jahan & Sobhan, 1988:113;
White, 1992:85). Against this backdrop, the establishment of the export-oriented
garment sector has mushroomed womens participation in waged employment and until
presently, has provided them with the most stable form of employment in Bangladesh,
as elsewhere in the world (Safa, 1983:96).

In this chapter I examine womens perceptions of factory employment. Here I

argue that garment factories have provided numerous Bangladeshi women with large
scale employment opportunities in the formal sector of the economy and they learn
saleable skill from their factory work. On the factory floor, they work in a rigid

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environment, where jobs are vertically segregated along gender lines and they are
positioned at the lowest tiers in the work hierarchy. In factory jobs, they have very
limited promotional prospects, which force them to exercise their own agency to the
extent that they try to benefit from the constraints of work structure, utilising their work
skills. As such, employee turnover in garment factories is very high. I discuss these
aspects of factory work referring to the narratives of women workers in subsequent
sections of this chapter. The subtitle of each section indicates a relevant theme that I
developed from the narratives of female factory workers.

Women and the formal sector of employment

The social construction of gender, under patriarchy, has developed some norms
for women, which traditionally have restricted their participation in the waged labour
force. Hartmann (1981:14) defined patriarchy as a set of relations having a material base,
which enables men to dominate women. The material base of patriarchy includes mens
control over the property, wage income and labour of the female household members. It
enables men to govern womens economic mobility and thus to maintain their
dominance over women by excluding them from access to paid employment. In
Bangladesh it describes a distribution of power and resources within households, such
as men controlling power and resources, while women remain subordinate to and
dependant on men throughout their life (Cain, Khanam & Nahar, 1979:406). The basic
features of the traditional family system in Bangladesh correspond to those articulated
by Kandiyoti (1988:278) in her description of classic patriarchy. Girls are married at a
young age. They go to live in their husbands house, where they are subordinate, not
only to all men but also to the older women. The cult of domesticity (Geschwender,
1992:2) and patriarchal rules of residence, inheritance and lineage work concurrently to
limit the economic and social autonomy of women in Bangladesh. Their proper role, the
cult of domesticity denotes, is to care for their husband, tend his home and raise his
children (Islam and Sultana, 2006:61).

The custom of purdah in Bangladesh has been an integral part of the patriarchal
belief system. Here purdah works as a means for the social control of women by men
along patriarchal lines, restricting their participation in visible social roles and ensuring
their participation in productive activities in the household. Feldman and McCarthy

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(1983:951) observed it as a system that simultaneously ensured womens participation
in familial agricultural activities, as well as their inability to control the fruits of
production. Bangladeshi women in rural areas have constantly been involved in the
processing of all agricultural products, within the confines of the household compound,
in addition to the maintenance of all household activities. Under the patriarchal family
system, the nature of their work is essentially inside the household and their economic
and social protection is mens responsibility. However, the pressures of extreme poverty
have challenged traditional organisation of family life in Bangladesh. Widespread
poverty has compromised the ability of men to ensure womens economic and social
protection and forced growing numbers of women to go outside the limits of their home
compound to ensure livelihood sustainability, despite the sanctions against their
presence in public places (Hossain, Jahan & Sobhan, 1990:34; Kibria, 1995:294-295).

Employment for women in the 1970s was very limited both in numbers and types.
Women from poorer families had almost no opportunity to participate in waged
employment in the formal sector. As such, many women during that time worked as
casual waged labours, domestic servants, petty traders and even sex workers to alleviate
poverty (Kabeer, 2004:14). Cultural restrictions on womens mobility, along with
having little or no education, confined them in these most exploitative and worst paid
jobs of the informal economy. The demand for labour for these jobs is unstable and they
cannot create an ongoing marketable output. Against this backdrop, the rise of the
export-oriented garment sector in the early 1980s provided enormous stable
employment opportunities for women. It was noted earlier that, since these labour
intensive industries, financed by foreign capital, were sensitive to production costs, they
relocated their manufacturing sites to developing countries in search of cheap labour to
maintain and boost their competitiveness in the global market. They employed women
in their manufacturing units, since it was assumed that women in the Third World could
be paid less for their work, because of their comparatively disadvantageous position in
the labour market. The tasks women perform at household level are unpaid and they are
treated as dependent on fathers and husbands and sharing mens wages. In patriarchal
societies it is perceived to be natural that men will occupy a higher economic position
than women. The notions of women being more submissive, feminine, expressive, and
dextrous, combined with their essential mothering role are often manipulated to justify
womens lower economic position to men (Anthias & Yuval-Davis, 1983:67). Because

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of these naturalising discourses, they are considered secondary to men in the labour
market and when they enter into the workforce, they are not seen as needing the same
remuneration as men. As such, the tasks they perform in the labour market are lower
paid and they constitute a cheap labour force (Beaton, 1982; Hossfeld, 1990; Lim, 1983,
1997). The process of socialisation and nature of household activities induce a
comparative disadvantage of women over men in the labour market, since their
household tasks are not acknowledged in calculations of market efficiency. Conversely,
however, one could argue that their comparative disadvantage position in the labour
market gives them a comparative advantage in terms of employability. Labour intensive
industries, such as the export-oriented garment manufacturing units, take advantage of
the comparative disadvantage of women and their secondary status to men in the labour
market and select women as the perfect workforce. Their employment in waged labour
in Bangladesh has made their presence visible in the public domain on a large scale.

Womens participation in waged employment outside the home is a violation of

purdah, an element of the existing gender order, which has been negotiated and
redefined through continuous social interactions and changes (Danecker, 2002:20). The
socioeconomic structure of Bangladesh has been upset by a series of social, political
and economic crises in the early 1970s (Hossain, Jahan & Sobhan, 1988:111). The nine
month long independence war of 1971 left many women abandoned. Many women
became rape victims of war and were not accepted by their families, while many others
were deserted because of the killing of many men (around 3 million) during the war.
Post-war conflict over control and distribution of resources and a subsequent famine in
1974 created economic insecurities for many people. Therefore, the economic and
social protection of families became difficult for men. This situation greatly affected
traditional patriarchal controls of men on women, making it more flexible, since women
were increasingly required to participate in paid employment for survival. Evidence
suggests that poverty in Bangladesh destabilised the material basis of the patriarchal
bargain (Kabeer, 1988:103; Kandiyoti, 1988:281). The socio-economic transformation
of the country, because of poverty, pushed women to move beyond their home
compound, in their quest for work and to challenge the custom of purdah. The advent of
garment factories proves that patriarchal structures in Bangladesh were more flexible to
the push of poverty and the pull of its power dynamics (Feldman, 2001:1113; Kabeer
and Mahmud, 2004:147). As such, the rapid and phenomenal growth of the garment

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industry has dramatically increased female participation rates11, especially in the formal
sector, in a short span of time, visibly transforming the gender composition of the
countrys labour force. Garment factories have played a major role in changing the
pattern of female participation in the formal labour market. These factories have
provided women with the opportunity of accessing waged employment and made their
economic contribution visible in the national economy. All participants of this research
articulated, as evident from the following narratives, that establishment of export-
oriented garment factories created employment opportunities for women in the formal
sector of the economy, which otherwise were rarely available to them.

I have been working here for three years. In the village there was no
possibility for me to earn money. One of our distant relations wanted to take
me to their house as a housemaid. I did not like that kind of job. You do not
get any money, just food for the work. [.....] I convinced my father to allow
me to come to town and join one of the garment factories. I like this work
although it is hard. It is much better than the work of a domestic servant. I
have a regular income here. I also work with other women in a group.
-An unmarried female EPZ worker aged 20

Obtaining a garment job is easy without much education. I did not go to

school. I have worked as a garment worker for five years. [.....] There are no
jobs in the village. You can make some money participating in construction
work or working for other people. But garment work is easier on the body
than these works. Every month you get your salary. It is not possible in the
village. [.....]Garment work is good because you go to office everyday and
learn something new.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 23

The common theme in the accounts of these two women, like many others,
regarding their decision to enter into garment factory work is their assessment that such
work, as explained below, is better than any other work available to them. They opted

11
In 1983-84 only 8% women participated in the labour force which stood at 29% in 2005-2006 as
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2007a) reports.

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for formal sector employment and obtained it through garment factories. Biographies12
reveal that three women tried to find employment in local NGOs, while another two
applied for government jobs but they were not successful. Since they wanted a job with
a steady income, the only option these women saw was to start working in garment
factories; however, it was not their first choice. The most often cited available income-
generating opportunities for women were crop processing, domestic service, raising
livestock, growing vegetables and construction work. According to the women I
interviewed in this study, the major comparative benefit of garment work is financial.
Employment in garment factories gives the opportunity to regularly earn money, which
is not possible from other work available to them in the informal sector. Garment work
is hard, but better than those outdoor jobs, in terms of its physical effect on the body.
Construction work and the like involve the risk of physical injuries and other related
problems, from which garment work is safer. Women perceive the nature of garment
work to be better and more attractive than other traditional income earning activities
within the informal sector. In addition, garment factory work gives them the flavour of
working in the formal sector of the economy with other women and they perceive it to
be modern in character, since they work in an office environment. For all of them office
meant the factory building where they work regularly for a specific time with a steady
monthly income, which almost is not possible in the informal sector of employment. As
suggested by many participants, garment work is easy to obtain, since it does not require
evidence of formal education. On applications new entrants have to demonstrate that
they have, at least, familiarity with English numbers and have attained the age to take a
factory job. Thus, these jobs do not require formal education, but rather provide work
opportunities to women who have few possibilities in the formal sector.

Evidence suggests that the participation of huge numbers of women in garment

production has brought about massive changes in the countrys foreign exchange
earnings and employment levels. Such changes have shifted official discourses on the
visibility of growing numbers of female garment workers as well. In 1993, the then
President of Bangladesh, Abdur Rahman Biswas declared at the Annual Apparel and
Textile Exposition:

12
By biographies I mean repeated discussions, in-depth interviews and structured interviews that I had
with female factory workers on the factory floors and in their houses during my field work.

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 The garment industry [......] has come as a blessing to our teeming millions
who could not for so long find any sources of employment. It has especially
made the womenfolk self-reliant by creating large-scale employment
opportunities for them. (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters
Association (BGMEA), 1993, cited in Siddiqi, 2009:164.)

Employment of huge numbers of women, in the formal sector of the economy, has
been one of the most significant impacts of the introduction of export-oriented garment
production in Bangladesh. In a brochure published on account of the 1993 Exposition
the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association noted, for the first
time in the history of Bangladesh this industry has created the highest employment
opportunity for the countrys underprivileged womenfolk in an organised industrial
sector (op cit.). Thus, official discourses also articulate that garment factories provide
women with the opportunity of participating in the formal sector of the national
economy making, I would argue, a significant historical shift in traditional gender norms
and relations in certain contexts.

Garment factory work environment

To enter garment factories, everybody has, first of all, to pass a number of guards
who keep the gate closed and locked. I always felt myself imprisoned when the gate was
locked behind me. Although one of the guards explained that this was necessary to
protect the workers from disturbance by outsiders. A few women (21%) felt such a
practice necessary, as they were safe inside the factory compound, since the gate was
locked. Some others (27%) perceived the practice as a controlling system, since it
allowed management to check who came late or left early, although late arrival or early
departure was almost impossible. Late arrival risks a deduction in salary, while there is
no scope of early departure from the factory, as it requires a gate-pass which, as I
perceived and the following narratives articulate, was rarely obtainable from the
management.

Guards close the gate when we are in. Without an order from the
management they will not open the gate for us. [.....] You have to collect a
gate-pass from the management if you require going out. If you show the

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 pass guards will open the gate. [.....] They never give a gate-pass. I tried
several times but never got one.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 21

A gate-pass is required when someone requires short leave in an emergency and

without any gate-pass there is no way to leave the factory compound. The rigidity of the
work environment is evident from the above account. During production hours guards
keep the gate locked and they never opened the gate without a gate-pass from the
management when any worker needed to go out. Consequently, no-one can leave the
factory premises until work is finished. Some respondents (34%) said that guards used to
check them regularly, during entrance and exit, in their previous jobs. There was no
provision of security checking in the garment factories in which I worked. Nevertheless,
the system of keeping gates locked is perhaps a controlling mechanism management
employ to ensure uninterrupted operation of the production process. As noted earlier,
garment manufacturing is chain work and the production chain is made up of as many
workers as needed. Withdrawal of a worker during production creates a vacuum in the
whole chain and interrupts the production process. For this reason, nobody is allowed to
leave the factory floor once they have joined the production chain. The gate is open
during lunch break and some workers go home for lunch, but they frequently come back
again, since unauthorised absence costs a days work and attendance bonus.

Production floors, inside the factories, are large rooms where the sewing machines
are located one behind another in rows. An operator sits at each machine, performs a
task on the garment and passes it to the next operator for another task on it. Thus, all
operators involved in a row complete the entire production process. In front of every
machine, there is a helper who assists operators in the smooth sewing of a garment. The
production of garment is fragmented into as many tasks as is possible and all tasks are
completed in one row. Each row is divided into a number of sections and each section is
made of a variety of machines and operators skilled in different processes. The tasks of
each section are supervised and checked by a supervisor and a quality inspector
respectively, while a line chief controls the whole line or row. A production manager
(PM) and a quality manager are responsible for target oriented quality clothing
production for each floor. Management sets an hourly production target for every line,
which automatically trickles down to everybody involved in producing the garment.

136
Failure of any worker to fulfil the respective hourly target is a failure of the whole row
in meeting the production target and this liability goes up to the PM. In the factory,
there are some reporters who record hourly production of all workers and place hourly
production reports before the factory management. From my participant observation, I
perceived that the motive of the management was to obtain the highest level of
productivity from workers. Management is more concerned about target fulfilment and
as such, it seemed to me, they never allowed workers to leave the factory until the days
target had been fulfilled.

Last week my father came to see me. So I did not want to do overtime work.
I asked my supervisor for permission to allow me to leave at 5pm. He
shouted and did not allow me to leave the office. We did night duty that day
and worked until 3am to fulfil our target. [.....] The following day my father
went home. I could not manage time to talk to my father because of work
pressure. Regular work time here is 8am - 5pm and then we do overtime
work until 11pm. [.....] They extend working hours whenever they feel it is
necessary. There is no prior notice about time extension. We work until our
target is fulfilled no matter how long it takes.
-An unmarried female n-EPZ worker aged 19

Despite her unwillingness, she had to do overtime work, since her supervisor was
more attentive to uninterrupted production and interested in target fulfilment and as
such, her needs were of no importance to him. Management is least concerned about
workers needs and requirements. Fulfilling production targets is more important to
them. They extend production hours as they feel is required. The gate is locked, the
production target is fixed and workers are kept under close supervision. Thus, factory
management creates a rigid work situation, so that machine operators must continually
keep pressure on the pedal of the electric sewing machines, while helpers and others
assist the operators in the smooth functioning of the production process.

As long as we are in the factory we have to work. We cannot eat anything

during work time. [..] There is no permission to eat anything on the
factory floor. [.....] If they find anybody eating [they] treat her very badly.
-A separated female n-EPZ worker aged 23

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 In a twelve to fifteen hour long workday, lunch break is the only time for workers
to eat or rest. In the EPZ factory we had a thirty minute lunch break while it was one
hour in the n-EPZ factory. Beyond the lunch break, the only task is to keep production
going, as is expressed in the words of the woman cited above. All respondents similarly
revealed that they were not allowed to eat anything during the time they were on the
factory floor. They avoided eating anything, because of the fear of repercussions from
supervisors. They could neither go home when they require, nor could they eat anything
when they were hungry. Their life, inside factories, was shaped by the ring of factory
bell and electric lights. They started working as soon as the bell rang and the lights were
turned on. They kept working until the bell rang again and the lights were turned off.
(The lights are controlled by a master switch, which is turned off during lunch break.)
As long as they were inside factories, they had to comply with managements desire. All
respondents articulated that factory management never valued their individual
emergencies or illness, as evident from the following accounts.

The garment factory is like a prison. Our condition is worse than that of a
prisoner in jail. They can move in jail but we cannot. [.....] We start with the
ring of a bell and wait for the next bell to ring. We cannot stop until it rings
again. If we stop the supervisor shouts. [.....] We start here at 7:30 in the
morning and finish at 8pm. We have only 30 minutes break for lunch in the
whole day. That is also our rest time throughout the day. [.....] One
afternoon during last week I felt very ill. I wanted to go home but they did
not allow me. They took me to the factory clinic. The doctor advised me to
have one hours rest. After one hour they called me to the production floor
and I worked until 8pm like other days. [.....] We are as if like a machine
which they operate according to their requirement.
-A married female EPZ worker aged 25

She felt sick and was not willing to work that day. As discussed in Chapter V, she
was entitled to a paid sick leave, which she was not granted. Management perceived
production to be more important than her sickness. She compared the factory to a prison,
where they had no freedom and perceived her situation to be worse than that of a
prisoner in jail. The situation of the following woman was indeed more severe, as she
could not manage time to purchase medicine for her illness.

138
 We start working in the factory at 8 in the morning and continue until 11 at
night. We work seven days a week. Now we have no holiday. I am suffering
from fever along with headache and cough for last couple of days. I cannot
take medicine. [.....] The doctor in the factory clinic prescribed me 7 days
medicine. They gave me 2 days medicine from the factory pharmacy and
asked me to buy the rest. But I could not manage time to buy the other
medicine. [.....] There is a pharmacy close to my house. Its still closed in the
morning when I come to the office and I find it closed at night when I go
back. [.....] There is a pharmacy here close to the factory. But people there
do not know me. They will not give me on credit. I have no money with me
now.
-An unmarried female n-EPZ worker aged 18

Notwithstanding her sickness, she could not manage time to purchase the required
medicine. My own perception and interviews reveal that garment workers inside the
factories are like prisoners who are confined on the factory floor and obliged to work, as
long as management desires. In the eyes of many workers, they are part of a machine,
which management operates as they feel is required to meet production targets. The
breaking down of tasks into simple procedures necessitates massive supply of machines
and labour and it is argued that the mechanisation of production makes owners view
workers as appendages of the machine (Burawoy, 1979:251; Ong, 1991:289). The work
environment is very rigid and inside factories they have no or extremely limited freedom
of choice. Nevertheless, biographies reveal that some women develop their own
strategies to cope with this rigid work environment on the factory floors.

(She addressed me) brother I will not come tomorrow. [.....] I feel sick.
Besides, I do not like this task. It is complicated. [.....] They will assign
someone else to work in my place. So when I come next day they will give me
a new machine with another task.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 23

Since she felt sick and did not like the task, she did not attend work the following
day and escaped the situation she felt was difficult. Thus, some women employ their
own agency to a certain level, when they feel it is required. More often than not, they

139
comply with the desires of management, once they have joined the production chain but
their compliance does not imply passivity and some of them utilise their agency to deal
with the rigidity of the factory working environment. Their work skills and experiences
and the availability of jobs perhaps give them the courage not to surrender, rather to
apply their own judgement in difficult situations, although this costs them their wages
and attendance allowance.

Factory work and the construction of skill

Professional tailoring in Bangladesh, as elsewhere, always has been and still is

deemed a male occupation. Men sit behind the sewing machines and they are exposed to
the public in market places. Traditionally, women have been excluded from this
occupation, although they constitute the majority of the workforce in garment
manufacturing for export. Mostly, women operate the sewing machines on factory floors.
They are considered not only to have naturally nimble fingers, but also to be naturally
more docile and willing to accept tough work discipline, and [......] to be naturally more
suited to tedious, repetitious, monotonous work (Elson & Pearson, 1981a:93). Elson
and Pearson noted that women learned sewing from their mothers and other female kin.
Their training in needlework and sewing produces the skill they require in factory work,
since industrial sewing of clothing resembles sewing with a domestic sewing machine.
However, none of the interviewed women had experience in running a sewing machine
prior to their starting factory work. Interviews reveal that the majority (87%) of female
operators are able to repair their sewing machines or to change the needles without help.
They learn these technical tasks in the course of time during their work on the sewing
machines. Garment production processes are fragmented into small and simple
procedures and as noted earlier, each machine operator performs one task in the making
of a garment. The operator who bar-tacks the hems continuously works with the bar-tack
machine. Thus, each worker performs the same small job repetitively, which, as the
following woman attested, is very boring.

Garment work is repetitive and boring. One is doing the same task every
day. When I sew side-seams I only sew side-seams until the supervisor
changes the task. [.....] The supervisor decides everything. Sometimes he

140
 changes machine. I have no control over what tasks I should do. [.....] I can
work with other machines. I always try to increase my speed on a machine.
- A married female EPZ worker aged 24

The repetitive and boring tasks gave women the opportunity to boost their speed.
Since production is fragmented into small procedures, each operator performs the same
task repeatedly on the same machine. Interviews reveal that it is an opportunity for them
to gain expertise on a specific machine. However, an operator has no control over what
task she has to perform. Supervisors assign a worker into the production process,
wherever they feel is required. In this sense, factory work is flexible in nature to some
degree. Because of work flexibility, workers are transferred from one task to another.
This is also an opportunity for them to learn to work with other machines, and thus,
flexibility of work enables women to develop skills in operating all machines related to
sewing. Interviews reveal that workers learn machine operating in an informal way, as
there is no provision of formal training facilities for them in garment factories. Providing
training is not profitable for the owners and they perceive that training women through
an apprenticeship is a waste of time (Westwood, 1984:24). Consequently, I did not find
any apprentices in the factories in which I worked. Employers perception that women
do not require any training in needlework naturalises womens role as sewing machine
operators. The naturalisation of womens roles has been the process of socialisation that
relegated them to the domestic sphere, which is associated with domination and control
(Kobayashi & Linda, 1994:230-231).

Nonetheless, new entrants usually start factory work as helpers who are the lowest
paid workers in factories. They are the most inexperienced in the factory and their task is
to provide necessary assistance to sewing machine operators. They cut threads from
clothing, unstitch garment for alteration, mark garment for attaching pockets, zippers etc.
and such other tasks, as they are asked. During their time as sewing helpers, they learn
to operate sewing machines. On-the-job training is the norm, as the following narratives
reveal.
I joined the garment factory job seven months ago. I am a helper here. I cut
extra threads from garments. [.....] My operator is very good. She shows me
how to operate (the sewing) machine. I sew garments during lunch and can

141
 handle the sewing machine. She (her operator) has advised me to take a new
job as an operator in some other factory.
-An unmarried female n-EPZ worker aged 17

In the previous factory I worked as a helper. [.....] Sometimes I used to cut

remnant threads from garment. Sometimes I used to mark on the garment for
attaching zippers. [.....] My operator was very nice to me. She allowed me to
sit at her machine during lunch break. I learned to operate an electric
sewing machine from her. [.....] Here I am a junior operator. This is my
second job. I gave an interview here. They asked me to sew some fabrics. I
did that and they gave me the job.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 20

Before joining garment job I had no idea about electric (sewing) machines.
I started the garment job as an iron man. I did not like that work. [.....] I
wanted to learn to operate sewing machine. Beside me there was an
operator. He was very good. [.....] He taught me how to operate a sewing
machine. I learned to make collar sleeves of a shirt from him. Then I took
job as a junior operator in another factory. There I learned over-locking,
button-hole making and stitching the joints of a shirt. [.....] Here I do pants
and now I can work with any sewing machine. I know the changing of
broken needles and maintenance of machines. I also do ironing when
required.
-A married female EPZ worker aged 25

All these three participants, like other women I interviewed in this research, were
willing to learn machining and to gain and improve their skill using their limited free
time in factories. In their way, they got the required help from other sewing machine
operators. Evidence suggests that workers do not receive any formal training that could
have improved the level of the skill they achieved from on-the-job training. Since
factory management does not provide any formal training opportunities, they themselves
try continually to upgrade their skill as factory workers, even though the concept of skill
is sexualised (Phillips & Taylor, 1980:85). Although both men and women operate
sewing machines, machining in garment factories is identified as womens work since

142
the majority of machine operators are women. It is classified as unskilled or semiskilled,
while technically a similar job done by men in smaller shops is identified as mens work
and classified as skilled. This example articulates that the construction of male and
female abilities and thus activities depend on context. Tailoring is valued as an
occupation, when it is done in public, while the same task becomes degraded, when it is
done by women in garment factories. Thus, the social and gendered construction of
skill creates the difference between mens and womens jobs or occupations and
undervalues womens work.

The lack of value placed in their labour capacity, defines female factory workers
as unskilled or semi skilled, even when they attain the ability to run sewing machines
and repair them without skilled (male) support. Interviews reveal that operators have to
demonstrate their ability to operate sewing machines when they are recruited for these
unskilled jobs but the beginners who know stitching are not asked about their ability
during interviews or afterwards and they are recruited as helpers. The varied interview
approach of recruiting operators and helpers signifies the difference between them. This
difference is indeed skill, which they develop in the course of time on the factory floor.
They perform repetitive and monotonous tasks like sewing one seam, adding hooks or
buttons, which, as I experienced from my participant observation, necessitates much
skill. Working on the sewing machines entails manual dexterity, concentration and
attention in detail. Qualities such as close concentration, accuracy and manual dexterity
observably require considerable skill (Pollart, 1981:65). In addition, working in a group
with other members interdependently also requires human capital, meaning knowledge
and skills. Other studies on female factory workers also suggest that women develop
skill through factory work (Sargent & Matthews, 1997; Feenstra & Hanson, 1997).
Womens participation in factory work gives them the opportunity to attain human
capital, which is embodied in their ability to perform labour to produce economic value.
Human capital does not mean skills generated only by formal education and training but
also those created by on-the-job training (Lall, 1992:170). On-the-job training is the only
option for female factory workers to learn skills. They attain skills through observation
and machine operation in their own time. This informal training, thus, saves the factory
owners an enormous amount of both labour time and money, at the expense of
individual workers.

143
Turnover and promotional prospects in garment factories

The female workers I interviewed changed garment factories, on average, three

times during a working life of five years13. Empirical evidence suggests that women do
not stick to one factory for a long time and job-hopping is a common phenomenon
among them. The high turnover rate of the garment factory workers is an important
finding of this study. Other research on female factory workers in Bangladesh and
elsewhere also corresponds to this finding (Eng & Keong, 1988; Hoque, Murayama &
Rahman, 1995; Paul-Majumder & Begum, 1997; Dannecker, 2002). Workers perceive
horizontal mobility as a strategy to improve their earnings and skills. Such other factors
as working environment, regularity of payment and personal relationships with other
workers also influence their mobility between factories. However, the following
narrative, typical of the majority of workers, I interviewed in this study, shows that
economic, as well as non-economic factors, made this worker change her work place
three times.

I have worked in garment factories for nearly five years. I started as a

helper. One of my neighbours worked in that factory as an operator. She
taught me machine operating. She advised me to find a new factory when I
attained full control over the machine. [.....] In the first factory I worked
eight months. As a helper I got BDT 1000 (US$ 15) per month there. In the
second factory I worked as a junior operator. During interview the
supervisor said I would get BDT 1300 (US$ 19) in the beginning and after
six months he would increase my salary. [.....] After six months I asked the
supervisor to increase my salary. He said, management was trying to find
new work orders and I had to wait until any new contract was signed. [.....] I
knew that the factory had lots of work and other operators got much more
than I did. So I decided to look for a new job. A new factory opened close by
and one day one of my friends and I went there. In the interview they wanted
to know my expected salary. I said BDT 2000 (US$ 30) but they offered me
BDT 1850 (US$ 27). I agreed because it was much higher than my previous
wages. [.....] But the work environment in this factory was very bad. The

13
I wanted to know their job histories during a work life of five years in garment factories.

144
 supervisors used to treat us very badly. We had to work up to midnight. They
did not pay full overtime bills. [.....] So I asked my neighbours to find me a
job. One of them organised this job for me after she talked with her
supervisor. I demonstrated my skill and they fixed my salary at BDT 2800
(US$ 41) in the beginning. [.....] I have worked here for nearly three years.
This factory is very good. We do not work here after 8pm. We have weekly
holidays. We get lunch and tiffin (snack) from the factory. Previously I
worked in non-EPZ factories. Some factories give lunch but there is no tiffin.
-A married female EPZ worker aged 24

She was mostly motivated by increment and every job change brought her higher
wages. Supervisors behaviour was also a matter of concern for her and influenced her
decision to find a new job. Interviews reveal and other research on female factory
workers reports, that supervisors behaviour14 on the factory floor is also responsible for
employee turnover in garment factories (Wright, 2001:368). One more thing is evident
from her description, that she liked her EPZ factory job, which was much better in terms
of wages and facilities. She had been working in the EPZ factory for nearly three years,
while she did her first factory job for eight months. Evidence suggests that new entrants
usually stay longer at their first workplace, where they try to learn some skills and build
some networks with others. The majority of workers (79%) got their first job with help
from a relative or neighbour, whereas the subsequent jobs, in most cases, they
themselves organised or found with help from their networks, developed inside or
outside the factory. Garment workers learn quickly that hard work and negotiation with
management are the ways of increasing income. Wages are fixed through negotiation
processes and all respondents articulated that changes of workplace were almost the only
way for them to negotiate with management and improve their incomes. They did not
automatically get higher salaries after working a certain period of time in a factory
unless they negotiated with management. The possibility for negotiation with
management in new factories was higher. They could demand much higher wages
during recruitment and the chances of receiving increments in new factories could be
better and this was one of the reasons for the high mobility of factory workers.
Interviews reveal that women learn this strategy very quickly and utilise it in the course

14
The behaviour of men, especially supervisors, is an issue of concern for especially female factory
workers. This aspect of factory work is detailed in the next chapter.

145
of time for their benefit. This strategy is also closely linked to the employment structures
within garment factories.

Nonetheless, despite the benefits and possibilities of mobility, promotional

prospects for female workers are limited within certain parameters. Their prospect stops
when they become senior operators, since further career possibilities in factory work are
very limited for them. In six to twelve months, women learn how to operate a machine.
Thereafter, usually they join new factories as junior operators. Promotion increases pay,
which rises at a much lower rate if they continue in the same factory.

In the previous factory I joined as a helper. My monthly wage at that time

was BDT 1200 (US$ 17). During the lunch breaks I used to work on the
machine of my operator. After nine months I got a machine. [.....] The
supervisor fixed my salary BDT 1350 (US$ 20) per month. I worked there six
months. Two months back I joined this factory as an operator. Here my
monthly salary is BDT 1700 (US$ 25).
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 21

In the previous factory I joined as an operator. In the beginning my salary

was BDT 2400 (US$ 35). The working environment in that factory was very
good. I worked there three years. They increased my salary only BDT 150
(US$ 2.2) per year. [.....] I joined here three months back as a senior
operator. Here my salary is BDT 3200 (US$ 46) per month.
-An unmarried female EPZ worker aged 21

The biographies narrated above illustrate the ways, in which workers change
factory as a means to gain salary increments, since their continuation in previous
factories did not increase their salary15 as they deserved. Usually, a junior operator can
operate at least one sewing machine, while an operator can use two or three machines
and a senior operator can operate all machines used in the production line. Reaching the

15
Both Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) Instruction I & II (1989) and
Bangladesh Labour Law (2006a) sanction the provision of a minimum 10% salary increment per year
for factory workers. Nevertheless, biographies reveal that management hardly follows prescribed rules
and regulations and workers increment depends on supervisors desire, which leaves them scope for
exploitation.

146
posts of junior operators, operators and senior operators are promotions for female
factory workers, which brings them higher salary. After reaching the post of senior
operator, promotion to them means an increase of salary, as they have virtually no scope
for vertical mobility. The next promotional posts belong to the management category,
which requires some degree of education. As discussed in chapter V, women join
factory work with no or little education and hence, their promotional prospect in these
posts is limited. The majority of interviewed female workers (89%) stated that low
levels of education had affected their promotion to managerial posts to a great extent. As
such, they employed horizontal mobility as a strategy to benefit from factory
employment. They did not continue in one factory for long, but rather moved between
factories, which brought them higher wages. From the adversities of factory work
environment and structure they in the course of time learned how to take advantage from
their disadvantaged positions in factory work. The skills or resources they developed
from factory work and the availability of jobs served to enhance their possibilities of
choosing differently.

Sexual division of labour on the factory floors

Beyond lack of educational qualifications, traditional gender discrimination also

works as a barrier for women and 63% respondents articulated that management
preferred men to women for supervisory posts. It is perhaps because of the existence of a
male managerial model that perpetuates societal norms that women should not or
cannot be successful in management (Terborg, 1997:647). It is argued that management
usually perceives that women are weak and lack leadership qualities, and as such, they
cannot supervise men, rather they should willingly accept supervision from men
(Thorsell, 1967, cited Pollart, 1981:78; Ong, 1991:299). During interviews, some
women also appeared to accept managements perspectives on the basis of normative
gender roles and expectations.

The supervisors always shout and frequently use bad language. Women
cannot do so. All our supervisors are male and this is good. Management
also prefers men for supervisory posts [.....] We (women) are not hard. If I
say anything nobody will listen. So I think I should not be a supervisor.
-A married female EPZ worker aged 23

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 Supervisors play a major role in organising production tasks. In order to maintain
a steady flow in the production line, they have to ensure that all operators involved in
the process coordinated with each other. Their responsibility is to provide a continuous
flow of work so that no one in the section is idle. Their tasks keep them shouting on the
factory floor. This woman perceived that women could not or should not shout or use
bad language. She, like many others, believed that men should work in supervisory posts.
Her fear, nobody will listen reflects her belief in male dominance, which she learned
through processes of socialisation. Such perceptions illustrate that women themselves
may justify the socially constructed gender roles of male and female. Social norms and
practices teach them to accept gendered discrimination and the concept of male
superiority, which reinforce the grounds of gender divisions of labour in factory
premises. Their perceptions about gender roles influence some women not to apply for
or accept supervisory posts, as happened to the following woman. Perhaps womens
compliance with these norms also influences management, to some degree, to follow
gendered divisions of labour in garment factories, in a perpetual reinforcing of these
gender expectations.

After working 5 years as senior operator I became supervisor in the

previous factory although it did not increase my wage that much. But my
promotion changed everything. Other women in the factory did not accept
me as before. Always I had to shout at them, which I did not like. I had to
take lunch with other male supervisors in a different table. I did not like
eating with other men. Nobody respected me as a supervisor. So I left that
factory. Here I am a senior operator. I think men should be supervisors.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 39

She perceived men as supervisors and valued her feeling of association with
female workers more. From her account, it is evident that promotion had negative
consequences on her personal relationships with other female workers. It affected her
interactions with her female co-workers. Moreover, she lost her occupational identity as
being one of them. She, like some others, did not want to lose the space that was created
through her participation in factory production with other women. Her personal feelings
influenced her behaviour. Her promotion brought salary increments but this became less
important to her than her feeling of association. Supervisors and line chiefs are required

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to arrive early and leave late, since they have to organise tasks on the factory floor. The
nature of the tasks as work organiser was also not convenient for her, since she had to
commute alone. Furthermore, she perceived that nobody in the factory respected her and
therefore she took a new job, again as a senior operator instead of a supervisor. It is
evident that the existing cultural and structural barriers discourage women from taking
managerial positions and they thus, to an extent, support the reinforcement of the
distinction among factory jobs along gender lines.

Production in garment factories is divided into three main tasks: cutting, sewing
and finishing. A general manager, always a man, is in charge of the total production
process from cutting to shipment. The process starts in the cutting section, which is
supervised by a male cutter. Usually men cut fabrics into small pieces and they are
assisted by a number of male and female helpers. In their 1997 survey on the socio-
economic and health condition of garment workers Paul-Majumder & Begum (2006:27)
found that 24% of helpers in the cutting section were female. Production managers are
in charge of the sewing floor. They are assisted by a number of line chiefs and
supervisors. Each supervisor is responsible for twelve to fifteen sewing machines and
each line chief supervises the tasks of four to five supervisors of a line. Production
managers, line chiefs and supervisors were all male in the factories where I worked.
Sewing machine operators and helpers constitute the main workforce of the sewing
section and the bulk of the labour of a garment factory is concentrated here. The
operators task is controlled by supervisors who have to ensure time-bound work
completion of each operator. Operators and helpers are predominantly female. In my
sample frame 78% and 69% of the workforce of the sewing sections were female in the
EPZ and n-EPZ factory respectively. Quality managers, assisted by some quality
inspectors, ensure quality work from the operators. Quality managers and inspectors are
usually male and there were no women in the quality departments in the factories in
which I worked. A man supervised the finishing section, where there were some male
and female helpers. The iron-man is usually male, while folding, packaging and
cartoning is done by both men and women. Paul-Majumder & Begum (op.cit.) reported
from their survey that 40% of the helpers in the finishing section were female. Thus,
evidence suggests, the employment structure in garment factories has feminised the
sewing machines in relation to other equipment.

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 Interviews reveal that women perceive sewing machines to be light and easy to
handle, while cutting and ironing machines are large, heavy and dangerous, and by
implication, they perceive, require higher levels of skill. The explicit maleness invoked
in their account justifies the unsuitability of women for certain kinds of job, reiterating a
mans greater ability for these tasks.

The cutting machines and irons are heavy and dangerous. Operating these
machines require more strength and careful attention. These are more suited
to men. These are mens jobs. I started factory job as an iron-man. I burnt
my fingers several times. It was very hard and other women in the factory
always sympathised with me. So I changed that job.
-An unmarried female EPZ worker aged 20

The perception of this woman, like many others, is not surprising. Her impression
about these jobs motivated her to change role. Since the task of an iron-man was
perceived to be hard, other women had sympathy for her. She viewed that working with
cutting machines and irons requires more physical ability and careful attention and men
are endowed with these qualities. It is likely that peoples beliefs are influenced by the
nuance and labelling of jobs. As such, she identified these jobs as mens jobs. All
participants demonstrated similar understandings, because of traditional processes of
socialisation, through which people learn to believe that men are stronger than women.
In the gendered language of mastery, the strength and ability to control so-called heavy
and more dangerous machinery constitutes a distinctly masculine ability.

As I have demonstrated, jobs in garment factories are highly segregated along

gender lines. Gender identity of activities is widely accepted and reproduced by the
workers, as well as employers, since we are taught to internalise the norms of gender
roles and usually people expect men to be masculine and women to be feminine in
their particular normative contexts (McCreary, 1994:521). Women work as sewing
machine operators and helpers throughout their work life and men occupy most
managerial and supervisory positions, as well as those requiring operation of heavy
machines in garment factories. It is, perhaps, because women constitute the majority
workforce and they independently perform one single task of the entire production
process, unlike tailoring, that management keeps wages low in the sewing section to

150
reduce production costs, while the conflation of masculinity with higher skill confers on
men higher status and wages (Siddiqui, 2000:13). Women form a homogenous group
who usually are tied to lines and have to work at speed, while men do not form any
similar single group. Evidence suggests that the gendered division of labour in garment
factories puts men in control. Employment is organised through a formal hierarchy,
where women remain at the bottom and a wage differential exists between men and
women in general (op. cit.). However, in my sample frame I had 31% and 22% men in
the n-EPZ and EPZ factory respectively, who were working as sewing machine
operators and helpers in the sewing section, alongside women. Interviews reveal that
work skill plays the most important role when salary is fixed for the workers within the
same level of the hierarchy.

My husband and I joined this factory at the same time. We worked for a
week on trial basis. After the trial period my supervisor fixed BDT 2900
(US$ 42) as my monthly salary while he got BDT 2800 (US$ 40.5) per
month in the beginning. As an operator I am more experienced and skilled
than him. He cannot work as fast as I can do.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 24

This woman and her husband joined the factory at the same time. She was more
experienced and skilled and hence, she was accorded a higher salary. Her husband also
articulated the same when I had informal talks with him during my participant
observation on the factory floor. The following articulation of one of the male operators
of an EPZ factory, like all respondents irrespective of their gender identity, points out
that experience and skill are the factors that influence salary agreements in recruiting
workers in garment factories. Nonetheless, the majority of women belong to the lowest
paid jobs where, as noted earlier, very few men work. Moreover, the government sets
minimum wages for a few managerial posts, in which mostly men are employed and the
wages are much higher16 than those of female dominated posts. Women predominantly
belong to the worker category, while staff positions are male dominated and better
paid, which indicates the existence of vertical job segregation (Hakim, 1981: 521) in

16
For instance, men are often employed for Grade-I (Chief Quality Controller/Cutting Master/Mechanic)
and Grade-II (Cutting Master /Mechanic) posts. The minimum wages for these posts are respectively
BDT 5140 (US$ 75) and BDT 3840 (US$ 56), while the same for a Grade-III (Senior Operator etc.) is
BDT 2449 (US$ 36). All workers belonging to Grade-III and downwards are predominantly female.

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garment factories although interestingly, the following male EPZ worker, as evident
from his narrative, is not acknowledging the vertical segregation in the work hierarchy.

There is no discrimination in terms of salary between male and female

workers in the factory. There are many women here who get more salary
than that I do. I joined this factory three years back and my monthly basic
salary when I joined was BDT 3200 (US$ 46). After a couple of weeks a girl
joined here who got BDT 3450 (US$ 50) per month at the beginning. [...]
They consider work skill and experience when they recruit. In the previous
factory they told us that if they could not send garments for shipment on the
agreed date they had to pay the shipping cost. Sometimes they declare
bonuses for time bound production targets. [...] I think they see how fast a
worker can work perfectly.
-An unmarried male EPZ worker aged 21

Factory management is more concerned with timely shipment of garment orders,

since they have to pay the entire shipment cost, in case of failure to meet a shipment date.
Moreover, failure in shipping products on an agreed date may cost them future orders
from the buyer and thus would impact negatively on the factory. It would limit their
chance of getting new work orders from other companies as well. Therefore, factory
management sometimes declare bonuses for fulfilling production targets on a due date.
They require skilled workers and it is obvious, as expressed by the male EPZ worker
that skill, speed and experience is the prime issue of concern for management when they
recruit new workers.

Conclusion

The patriarchal family system in Bangladesh traditionally ensured that control

over material resources, including female labour, was vested in male hands. It
maintained women as dependants on men. Purdah, a powerful cultural ideal that worked
along patriarchal lines, ensured that public space also remained the domain of men.
Nonetheless, the Independence War of 1971 and the famine of 1974 together contributed
to the intensification of poverty during the 1970s and eroded the ability of this
patriarchal system to maintain women as dependants. Widespread poverty created a

152
milieu for women to break the limits of their participation in the labour force and the
practice of purdah increasingly became untenable (Pryer, 1992:152). Prior to the advent
of the garment sector in the 1980s, their scope to participate in the formal labour market
was highly marginal. The establishment of the garment sector and the new market
factories in Bangladesh had positive effects on women who were looking for paid
employment. Garment factories widened employment opportunities for women and
provided a stable source of income which earlier was not available to them.

However, the nature of work in garment factories keeps women in a type of

confinement. They work in a rigid chain like situation in factories. The motive of
management is to get as much work out of them as possible in the time their factories
pay them for (Cavendish, 1982:90). Therefore, once they are inside factories, they have
to complete the day as management desires. Their personal circumstances and needs are
not valued by the management, since it is mostly concerned with the fulfilment of the
production target. In this sense, garment factories are almost like prisons and workers
are like prisoners who enjoy limited freedom of movement while they are inside, since
they have to adhere to the desires of management. The rigidity of work environment also
influences some women to a certain degree that they exercise their own agency when
they feel is required.

Garment production processes are fragmented into as many tasks as possible.

Floor supervisors assign each worker one specific task and workers do repetitive tasks
for long hours, since they have no control over what tasks they have to perform.
Supervisors sometimes change their tasks, as they feel is required and in this sense there
is some sort of flexibility in factory work. The flexibility of work and repetitive task
completion give workers the opportunity of attaining skill over sewing machines. They
learn skill through on-the-job training at the expense of their own limited free time,
since management does not provide them with any formal training facility.

Employment structure in garment factories is segregated along gender lines.

Mostly men belong to the highly paid managerial posts, while women constitute the
majority of the workforce and do the most exhaustive tasks in garment factories for the
least wages. They remain dependent upon male skills and expertise, since men control
the technical aspects of production, whilst maintenance, servicing and movement of

153
machines are male tasks. These are highly skilled tasks, which generally command high
wages, whereas the tasks women perform are low paid, although sewing is also a skilled
task (Collins, 2002:932-933). Promotional prospects for them in garment factories are
very limited and the factory employment structure restricts their upward mobility to
supervisory and managerial posts, while some women do not prefer these posts because
of cultural and structural barriers. As such, women dominate the lowest levels of both
pay and authority and men mostly occupy supervisory and managerial posts (Mills,
2003:43). Their position is moulded in the light of their role within the family, which
reinforces the social construction of gender roles and similar patterns of hierarchy and
subordination emerge in garment sector employment (Chant, 1989:152; Ong, 1991:287).
Garment factory work structure incorporates and naturalises the discourse of traditional
gender inequalities. The sexual hierarchy oppresses female workers as women and they
are simultaneously oppressed as workers being employed in the least paid jobs.

Even though garment factory employment has enabled women to leave their
traditional confinement in the home and move beyond the dominance of male relatives
to some extent, they have been exposed to the dominance of alien male supervisors on
the factory floor. Familial impoverishment has enabled them to work outside the home
but not beyond male authority. Nevertheless, women can and do exert agency within
relatively restricted parameters. Because of limited promotional opportunities for getting
higher positions and better wages, women adopt horizontal mobility as their strategy of
increment. Although they experience their life in garment factories as a member of the
lowest level of the hierarchy, they utilise the available alternatives in terms of job
choices. Since the garment sector is an increasingly flourishing arena of employment in
Bangladesh, they can employ their agency to benefit from the constraints of factory
employment.

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Chapter VII: Workers lived experiences in public and private spheres

Introduction

Although the constitution of Bangladesh guarantees women equal employment

opportunities and equal wages for equal work to men, the widespread enforcement of
purdah traditionally has confined them to their homes. The sexual division of labour,
under patriarchal kinship relations, has designated the private sphere as predominantly
female space and the public sphere as primarily male space. Nevertheless, the pressure
of increasing poverty in post-independent Bangladesh has pushed women into visible
areas of work outside the household compound (Pryer, 1992:141). The boom in the
garment sector in Bangladesh, since the 1980s, has worked as a pull factor for large
numbers of women and brought them beyond the homestead. Employment in export-
oriented garment factories provided them an avenue to concurrently contest lack of
employment opportunities in the formal sector and impoverishment. However, their
position as an employee on the factory floor is determined by existing patriarchal
ideologies (Walby, 1986:57). As noted in the previous chapter, patriarchal ideologies
and relations affect work place culture in garment factories and reproduce a gender
division of labour, where men dominate the hierarchy of activities, while women belong
to the lowest tiers of the work structure. The gendering of work in factories reproduces
the socially constructed notion of masculinity and femininity on the factory floor and
reinforces the subordination of women in the workplace (Westwood, 1984:6).
Alongside their subordinate position to men, they are the least paid workers who
constitute the majority of the workforce in garment factories.

However, employment opportunities in the garment sector has brought women

outside the homestead and enabled them to participate in gainful productive activities
beyond their role, as an unpaid productive and reproductive worker, at the household
level. In this chapter I analyse womens perceptions about themselves simultaneously as
paid factory workers and as members in their respective households. I argue that female
factory workers lack respect inside the factories and that they are vulnerable to violence
and health hazards. Moreover, management, rather than demonstrating a concern for
their wellbeing, in some cases, actually try to deprive them of their financial benefits.
Women, however, are expected to surrender their wages to their household heads and I

155
argue that despite having a steady income, they gain little economic autonomy and they
are doubly burdened with both factory and household work.

On the factory floor they work in a controlled atmosphere. As I observed, control

is overt, visible and punishment oriented. The most common form of punishment is
working extra hours after regular working time without payment. During working hours,
eating anything or making and receiving phone calls are proscribed. Workers are free to
go to the toilet without permission, although many of them commented that during the
rapid flow of work they could not manage time to go when they felt the need. Further,
supervisors question them if they feel someone is taking a long time in the toilet. It was
noted in the previous chapter that the production process is organised in such a way that
each stage of the process is dependent on the efficient and speedy completion of the
previous one. As a consequence of failure in efficient and speedy task completion or
violating factory norms, women more often than not experience maltreatment on the
factory floor.

Power and respect within the factory

Men in garment factories are situated in a position where they can exercise greater
power over women. Their power lies in their control over the production process, which
promotes the subordination of women as gendered subjects in the workplace
(Westwood, 1984:24). The authority relations in factories are exposed in the use of the
term tui17 on the factory floor. I observed that supervisors frequently used the term tui to
address all workers on the factory floor and this form of address demonstrates that they

17
In Bengali there are three forms of the English terminology you. One of the forms is apni which is
usually used to address aged people like familial elders, older familial kin, senior as well as respectable
persons of society. Usually strangers irrespective of age are also addressed apni. Senior persons use
the terms tumi and tui to address their juniors. Among friends and same aged people these two
forms of you are also used in Bengali. The usages of the terms apni, tumi, and tui are contextual.
My parents and elder brother address me as tui while they address my wife as tumi although she is
junior to me in respect of age. Customarily it is not appreciated to address in-laws tui since it is
discourteous for them. My sister-in-law is junior to me but I address her as apni since because of
being my elder brothers wife she gained status in our family over me. The term apni is to an extent
linked to status. Someone senior but possessing a lower social status than a junior will customarily be
expected to address the junior as apni, whilst the junior can address a senior having lower social
status as tumi but they are never expected to address seniors as tui since it is deemed to be audacity.
The term tui to an extent indicates lower status. We address our male domestic worker as tui and the
female as tumi. Usually they are not addressed apni. However, the term tui is not used to address
any member of the lower subordinate services in the office, since in that case it is deemed to be
unmannerly for them. Customarily tui demonstrates a familial and extremely informal relation to
some extent, which is not appreciated in working relations. Moreover, men are not expected to address
women using the terminology tui unless the context is familial and informal.

156
have control and authority over workers. Moreover, it is unmannerly when used in
working relations. Members of factory management frequently addressed workers by
their familiar names, which also expressed that they lacked respect on the factory floor.
Interviews revealed that all women, irrespective of their age, experienced such
treatment, which, as they felt and I perceived, was undermining for them. Another
insulting aspect of authority relations is mistrust of workers. I observed, and interviews
revealed, that management did not appear to trust workers on the factory floor. One day,
during my work in the n-EPZ factory, one woman asked her supervisor for leave after
lunch to go home to attend the funeral of her grandmother. I perceived that the
supervisor had very little sympathy for the woman and the instant question to her from
him was whether she had used her mobile phone during work. She gave her phone to
the supervisor to check the call list and tried to make him believe that she got the
message during lunch. Thereafter the supervisor called her mother for confirmation of
the message. It appeared that frequent mistrust upon workers from management was a
common phenomenon in factories. One of the supervisors once told me that workers
usually lied and tried to cheat them to take undue privileges. In his view, workers
behaviour on the factory floor causes their mistrust of them. Yet, it is very difficult to
justify that workers lie and try to cheat management. They work for their survival and, I
would suggest, would try to make the most of their labour. Moreover, he told me that
they rarely allowed workers to leave the production chain and he could not mention any
type of undue privilege when I asked him. Nonetheless, the perception of supervisors
about workers is linked to their lack of respect towards them.

It is really painful that supervisors do not trust us. They will not believe in
you when you are sick. They think we all are liars. They never believe us
when we tell them about emergencies in our home. They phone our relations
back home and want to confirm.
-An unmarried female n-EPZ worker aged 20

She, like many others, expressed her dissatisfaction with supervisors attitude
towards them. Supervisors mistrust of workers is an indication of their lack of respect.
In her research of female factory workers in South China, Lee (1995:384) also observed
similar unfair practices, which workers frequently experienced from supervisors on the
factory floor. Interactions between the workers and supervisors inside the factories and

157
the way they treat female workers are always issues of concern for women. All
interviewed women expressed their dissatisfaction in relation to supervisors behaviour,
attitude and approach towards them. Further, disciplinary strategies like verbal abuse
and coercion inside factories invoke women as primarily sexualised bodies (Siddiqi,
2009:167).

If we make mistakes or the supervisor thinks we do not work properly, he

screams at us: daughter of a dog, prostitute. Work properly or I will kick at
your back. They shout if they find anybody talking: We do not pay for
talking. Talk on the road not here. They let everybody know that we are at
fault.
-A married female EPZ worker aged 22

On the factory floor female workers in particular frequently experience abusive

words from supervisors when they make mistakes or fail to fulfil production targets or
infringe any factory norm. The language a supervisor uses in daily interactions with
them, as expressed in the above narrative, is obviously insulting for workers and all
interviewed women interpreted this as a lack of respect for them. They perceive that
they do not have any respect as workers nor do they get any respect from men as
women. Similarly in her research on the effects of economic globalisation on
Bangladeshi women, Dannecker (2002:127) also observed that women felt disrespected
on the factory floor as women as well as workers.

Violence and harassment in and out of the workplace

Female factory workers frequently cope with maltreatment from their supervisors
on the factory floor. Interviews reveal that they were always apprehensive of being
harassed inside the factories. For them, harassment ranged from demeaning verbal and
body language and humiliating remarks to unwelcome touching and physical assaults
including rape. During my job in the n-EPZ factory, a young woman was raped in
another factory, shortly after she had finished her work late at night. A couple of days
after the incident, we learned by word of mouth that the pretty woman was taken that
night by one of the relations of the factory owner, while she, with many others, was
sleeping on the factory floor. Usually, workers sleep on the factory floor when they

158
finish their work late at night, since they cannot go home, because of insecurity on the
streets. This incident shows that they are not safe at their respective work places either.
Although such violence toward female factory workers is not common, I observed that
women are prone to harassment in garment factories in different ways. In addition to
more serious incidents, I also found supervisors frequently placed their hands on female
workers shoulders, while they were working. Pollart (1981:143) also found similar
practices in UK and articulated in her research report that female factory workers
frequently experienced overtly familiar and inappropriate sexual touching from
supervisors on the factory floor. The majority of female participants (69%) of this
research expressed their disappointment at the behaviour from supervisors. Despite their
dislike at facing such behaviour from men, for the majority of them (87%), the most
annoying experience was frequent bad language from supervisors. I observed, and
interviews reveal, that the common violence for women in garment factories was
inappropriate verbal and body language from men. Verbal abuse and intimidation is a
widely accepted mode of labour discipline in garment factories and the widespread use
of gali or expletives is the most common form of harassment for women on the factory
floor, to which they are subjected during working hours (Siddiqi, 2009:168). During my
work in the EPZ factory once I observed a supervisor used highly sexualised words and
body language with a female operator who made some mistakes. The approach and
words of the supervisor were so embarrassing that she cried on the floor. Another
female co-worker expressed her antagonism, as evident from the following account,
when I asked her comments on this situation.

Dont they have a mother or sisters in their home? I do not understand how
they use such language with a girl. If the supervisor thinks we are not
working properly he shouts. If we make mistakes they call us names like
daughter of a dog, prostitute and use all other dirty words. They call our
parents names too. We made mistakes but why do they call our parents name?
Sometimes other male workers also make dirty remarks. [.....] Management
never took any action against such behaviour. They never think of us.
-An unmarried female n-EPZ worker aged 22

The most annoying aspect for her was calling parents names. She articulated that
experiencing dirty words from men in garment factories is common for female workers.

159
They also risk such physical assault as having pulling hair, slapping, hitting on the head
and stroking. All respondents, like her, articulated that management never took any
action against this type of harassment, nor were they concerned about their safety and
wellbeing. Interestingly, female workers frequently underreported these sorts of
violence but the reporting was higher when I asked them about these incidents in the
case of their colleagues. However, some female workers (23%) reported that men
always looked for an opportunity to have an affair and send love letters.

We work with men in the factory but we do not mix with them. When
somebody wants to talk to me I say I am married. I have two children. But
some have proposed marriage. Some want to make relations only. I got
several love letters. I do not tell anything to anybody, since others might
blame me or think me bad.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 24

Despite the fact that she was married with two children, she received marriage
proposals from men, while some others wanted to have illicit relations with her. This is
a cause of anxiety for female workers, although they usually do not tell others about
such incidents. This is due mainly to their fear, as expressed in the account above, that
in such cases women are blamed by others. They will be blamed, since they are
transgressing what is regarded as male space, beyond the custom of purdah (Kabeer,
1991:149). Interviews reveal that women tried to maintain a distance from male workers
as part of their observance of purdah. Siddiqi noted (1991:8) from her research on the
discipline and control mechanism of Bangladeshi garment workers on the factory floor
and I observed that they tried to control each others behaviour on the factory floor as an
effort to demonstrate that their behaviour is above approach. Further, they use idioms
of kinship like bhai (older brother) and apa (older sister) to refer to male and female co-
workers respectively. This desexualisation of work place relations privatises male
female relations on the factory floor and identifies appropriate persons with whom one
can interact (Feldman, 2001:1106). Despite their efforts, they experience harassment
from men as expressed in the above narrative. Another type of harassment is threat of
dismissal and 47% of female workers reported that they experienced such threats from
supervisors and others.

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 Interviews reveal that women are prone to harassment not only on the factory
floor but also on the streets, while they commute, especially at night. Although the
majority of respondents (89%) travelled by factory buses, they had to walk home from
the main road. All respondents reported that the streets were unsafe for them and,
especially after sunset, they face problems. The most common problems they face on
the road are suggestive comments by street boys, as expressed in the account of the
following woman. She, like the majority of female workers (71%), experienced remarks
from men on the streets, while 23% reported they felt scared, since they were followed
or attacked by muggers and unruly boys, while they were walking to their home at night.

People say many things on the streets. We do not respond to them. [...] If we
answer back, they will feel encouraged to pursue. Sometimes they follow us
if we walk alone. [...] I feel scared. So we try to walk in groups.
-An unmarried female EPZ worker aged 19

Another issue of concern for women is harassment by bus staff and 19%
articulated that they touch the female body when they get into the bus. In addition to
such harassment, biographies reveal, and Kabeer (1991:149) notes, that women coming
home late at night can also be picked up by police on suspicion of prostitution. None of
the female respondents reported any such incident but some of them experienced
incidents of kidnapping from the street, which happened to their colleagues.

One day we were walking on our way home at night. Suddenly a scooter
stopped beside us and one man forcibly pulled one of our friends into the car.
We recognised the man. He was pursuing her for a long time. [.....]
Everything happened so quickly that we could not scream. She was
unmarried and very beautiful. We lived in the same house. After three days
the man left her free. [.....] Our landlord did not allow her to live in his
house. [.....] Other female workers also did not accept her. They always
laughed at her. As if it was all her fault. So she changed her job and
residence.
-An unmarried female n-EPZ worker aged 19

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 Walking in groups is a strategy women adopt for their security. Despite adopting
such strategies, they become victims of harassment and once victimised it becomes
perceived as their fault. As such, the young woman in the above account faced
ostracisation and humiliation following her ordeal and nobody accepted her. Violence
against her on the street created a situation that led her to change her residence and job.
Evidence suggests that women are vulnerable to violence not only on the streets but they
experience violence at their place of residence also. The majority (71%) of those living
with relatives reported that their female relatives often abused them verbally for not
participating in household work, while 23% heard that male relatives of their friends
often tried to have relations with them. A few female participants (13%) reported that
local unruly people often bothered them at their houses, while some others living on
their own experienced theft in their houses when away at work. The majority of female
workers (67%) living with family sometimes experienced verbal abuse from their family
members, because of their late night return from their job. Thus, everywhere they were
at risk at becoming victims of violence. The creation of waged employment made them
more vulnerable to violence within the work place, in the street during commuting and
at the place of residence. Other studies of Bangladeshi female garment workers also note
similar findings (Dannecker, 2002; Paul-Majumder & Begum, 2006; Zohir, 2007;
Siddiqi, 2009). In addition to these painful experiences, they suffer from various health
related problems caused by the work environment, as discussed below.

Health and wellbeing at work

Garment factories provide better working conditions on the factory floor in terms
of physical facilities. Interviews reveal that despite having better working conditions,
workers suffer from various health related problems, although they are not usually
vulnerable to serious occupational accidents. Minor accidents that often occur in the
factories include pricking of the fingers by needles or hurting the finger tips. The
majority of female respondents (89%) said that since entering factory work, they had
experienced various types of physical problems, while 11% reported that they had not
experienced any illness because of their factory work. Interviews reveal and Paul-
Majumder (2001:180) suggests that physical diseases from which garment workers
suffer are correlated with their length of service. The prevalence of suffering is higher
for those who have been working for a long time. The majority of those who reported

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that they were not suffering from any health related problem because of factory work
had been working for less than two years, while the length of service for others was
more than three years. The most common problems women mentioned were headache
and eye pain or eyesight problems.

I have been working in garment factories for five years. Before joining here
my health was very good and I had no physical problem. But now I use
glasses. I feel severe headache if I do not use my glasses. Doctor told me
that these problems arose because of extra pressure on my eyes during work.
[....] I have to put on glasses for a long time and maybe someday I will get
relief from my headache problem'.
-A married female EPZ worker aged 23

She had developed headache and eyesight problems after she had started factory
work. She now had to wear spectacles, although she did not have any eye related
problem before taking the factory job. This problem is caused by the nature of garment
factory work, since stitching requires close eye contact and 9% of female respondents
said that they suffered from regular headache and eyesight problems, while 23%
suffered from this problem occasionally. Another great occupational hazard in garment
manufacturing is stomach pain and continued weakening, as a consequence of long work,
often without adequate rest and food. Vast numbers of female workers (59%) said that
they suffered from stomach pain and physical weakness.

I have been working in garment factories for nearly four years. Now I suffer
from gastric trouble for the last six months. I feel very weak also. Before
taking a factory job I had no physical problem. [.....] Work pressure is very
high now. I cannot eat when I am hungry. Sometimes during work I do not
take water also.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 22

During work, nobody is allowed to eat anything on the factory floor so that there is
no stain on the garment. Therefore, they have to work with an empty stomach, even
when they need food. Because of long working hours, they cannot have adequate sleep
and rest. The woman cited above, like many others, also did not drink enough water, as

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she did not want to spent time visiting the toilet. It is not unlikely that workers will try to
avoid using the toilet, since they are continuously pursuing target fulfilment. Hence, it
may be the case that such workers are more vulnerable to urinary tract infection and
related problems. The most prevalent chronic problems for garment workers, as they
reported to me, were gastro-intestinal and respiratory problems. Interviews reveal that
33% female respondents had suffered from gastric related problems while 21% had
respiratory problems.

For the last couple of months I have suffered from respiratory problems. I
also have a cough. I did not have these problems before. The over lock
machine spreads lots of dust when I work with it. [.....] Earlier I did not
know that I should cover my face when I worked with sewing machines. Now
I always use a mask when I am inside factories.
-A married female EPZ worker aged 25

Fabrics and cotton used in garment factories contain dust, chemicals and other
toxic substances. A World Health Organisation (WHO, 1986, cited in Paul-Majumder
2001:183) report articulated that workers of industries dealing with cotton, wool, fabrics
etc. had high probability of respiratory diseases like bronchitis, chest pain, breathing
problems etc. Workers continuously inhale dust and other substances directly when they
work on the factory floor. Interviews reveal that some women did not know about this
hazard, nor did they know that a mask could protect them from respiratory problems.
Prolonged work on factory floor and inhaling toxic substances created the problems of
the woman narrated above. Further, because of prolonged standing or sitting on the
factory floor, they also develop swelling in the legs and back pain and shoulder pain in
particular, and 14% of female workers I interviewed in this research complained of such
problems. Since their working hours are very long, it is not possible for them to manage
time to purchase medicine when required. As such, their physical problems become
chronic and obviously it affects their total productivity, since it is not possible to work
with full attention at full speed, because of physical problems. Beyond these health
related problems, women frequently suffer from some mental pressures caused by
factory employment. A significant portion of participants (33%) identified fulfilment of
production target and escaping supervisors maltreatment as a common cause of mental
stress. Evidence suggests that safe home return at night causes anxiety for 21% women,

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while 11% of married women felt worried for their small children. On the factory floor I
also found women appeared tired and sleepy. If they often experience tiredness, it is also
likely that they would experience increased psychological stress (Blaxter, 1985, cited in
Paul-Majumder 2001:183).

Garment factory work can create both physical and psychological problems for
women. Interviews reveal and other research suggests (Goonatilake & Goonesekere,
1988; Butler & Teagarden, 1993; Hosmer & Masten, 1995; Paul-Majumder 2001; Absar,
2003; Zohir, 2007) that the most prevalent problems for workers are headaches, physical
weakness, eye pain, gastrointestinal problems, breathing problems, fever, coughs and
colds, respiratory problem and fatigue.

Access to resources and abuse of power at work

Women are situated at the lowest tiers of work hierarchy and perform the lowest
paid jobs in garment factories (Safa, 1981:419). Ethnographic evidence suggests that
beyond employment in low paid positions, their promotional prospects in factory work
are also very limited, which increases the frequency of horizontal mobility among
workers. They adopt this strategy, as a means of increasing their salary. However, their
changing factories provides management with the opportunity to deprive them of
financial benefits due to them, in different kinds of ways.

Previously I worked in a non-EPZ factory. I told them two months before

leaving that job. But they did not give my wages when I left. Thereafter I had
to go there three times for my salary. They asked me to go again for
overtime bills. [.....] They deducted four days salary and attendance
allowance. They said I was absent four days which is not true. [....] I know
they will do the same with overtime wages as they did with my salary. So I
did not go there for my overtime wages. [.....]You will not get your all wages
when you leave a job. Everywhere it is the same.
-An unmarried female EPZ worker aged 21

An employee has to notify management sixty days prior to her leaving a factory
job. In that case, she is supposed to get all her wages from the factory on her final day at

165
work. Nonetheless, factory management did not give her all her due financial benefits
and gave her deducted wages at a later time. In order to collect her wages from the
previous factory, she had to go three times, which cost her three days salary and
attendance allowance in her present job. It is likely that to obtain the rest of her wages,
she would have to sacrifice a few more days salary at the new factory. Thus, workers
lose in both factories, when they change their jobs. Moreover, she perceives that she
will not get overtime bills for the actual hours she did in that factory. In such a situation,
it is likely that she will not go there again for her overtime wages, as the strategy
management adopts in paying departing workers is discouraging for them. Officially,
two hours overtime work a day is authorised but evidence suggests that workers do
more hours than the norm specifies. To meet production targets, they also work on
weekly holidays, which are treated as overtime work. During participant observation, I
perceived that management records daily two hours overtime work on the computer
system, while the extra hours are recorded manually. They follow this strategy to satisfy
the buyers when they visit factories, to see how prescribed rules are followed on the
factory floor18. Yet, this strategy leaves them with scope for manipulation and paying
workers less for overtime work. Workers frequently complain of underpayment of their
overtime wages but they are not aware of the degree. Quoting Barakat et al. (2003), an
Oxfam report articulates that Bangladeshi garment workers receive on average 60-80%
of their due overtime earnings (Oxfam International 2004, cited in Kidder & Raworth,
2004:18). The majority of respondents (79%), irrespective of their gender identity, said
that deduction or even non-payment of wages to someone leaving their job was a
common phenomenon in garment factories.

Last time I could not attend office three days. I was very sick. On my return
I filled in the sick leave form and my supervisor approved that. [....] The
following month I discovered that they deducted my three days salary and
attendance allowance. They told me that they did not get my application. I
did not realise what really happened.
-An unmarried female EPZ worker aged 20

18
Although workers usually do more than two hours overtime work they are taught to lie before visiting
foreign buyers that they never did more overtime work than they are supposed to do. They are also
taught to tell that they enjoyed a day off as a substitute when they are required to work on holidays
because of emergency. I perceived that workers also follow the teachings of management since they at
least could work more hours and earn more money from their work.

166
 As noted in chapter V, she is entitled to enjoy fourteen days paid sick leave a year
but despite that management deducted her salary. She tried to bargain with them, but
was not successful. The majority of interviewed workers stated clearly that they seldom
received paid leave. All respondents from n-EPZ factories articulated that they never
got tiffin allowances when they did more than two hours overtime work a day. Thus,
factory management deprives workers in different ways of financial benefits and other
related facilities.

I am eight months pregnant. Management told me that I need rest now.

They asked me to resign. [.....] I asked for maternity benefit but they said I
have not completed six months work. [....] I could easily work three more
days. I had no problem. Now I understand that they did not want to give me
the maternity benefit. They said I will get the job here again if I come within
next six months. [....] I am a very good operator. Every factory will take me.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 20

Management deprived her of maternity benefits by asking her to resign three days
before her completion of six months work in the factory, which as mentioned earlier is
the minimum time she had to work to be entitled to maternity benefit. Prior to her
leaving, because of her pregnancy, they relaxed her duties in the factory, in the sense
that despite being an operator, she was working as a helper whose tasks require less
physical stress. Helpers are not usually provided with a chair to sit on, but they gave her
one. Further, they told her that they would take her again if she came within the next six
months. All these perhaps impacted on her positively and she perceived that
management was sympathetic to her. They may have valued her skill but did not value
their financial obligations. She realised what they had done at a later date. This deprival
and her self confidence created agency in her and she said it was likely that she would
look for a new job. The amount management saved by not giving maternity benefit was
not that much for them but meant a great deal to her. However, it seemed that they do
not care for workers wellbeing and try to cut costs by depriving them of their salaries.
All respondents articulated that management in garment factories deprive workers of
especially financial benefits in different ways.

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Power and resource allocation in the household

The female labour force in the garment industry of Bangladesh is made of women
belonging to different economic categories. Biographies in my research suggest that
quite a number of female workers do not necessarily belong to the poorest of the poor
families. Their families do not solely depend on their income, since there is another
breadwinner in the family and so their earning is a supplement to the household income.
Nevertheless, the majority of women I interviewed took factory jobs, since their family
required their financial support. Irrespective of the underlying causes leading women to
factory employment, the dominant pattern of managing their income was, usually, to
hand it over to their household heads.

I give all my wages to my husband. Now he is my guardian and it is his

responsibility to feed me. We work in the same factory. I give him my wages
as soon as I get them. [.....] Before marriage I used to keep some for me and
send the rest to my father in our village home. [.....] From our common fund
my husband sends some money every month to his father. He spends money
for the family as he feels is necessary. He maintains a bank account also.
[.....] He does not spend money for his own pleasure. He spends money for
the good of our family and saves for our future. Sometimes he also gives me
[money] when I ask him.
-A married female EPZ worker aged 21

Women living without family have more control over their income, but they
usually remit a portion of their wages to their natal families in the villages. Their
feminine identity changes once they are married. They become a member of their
husbands family, as the most junior member, whose chief virtue is submission, learning
how to do what will please the family and proving their worth through obedience, hard
work, good temper and modest behaviour (White, 1992:97). The process of
socialisation of men and women teaches them the concept of male breadwinner, and that
purchasing food and other things for the household is a mans responsibility. As such,
she surrenders her income to her husband. Her surrender of pay to her husband is her
compliance with the broader ideological elements of the traditional patriarchal family
system in Bangladesh. She views her husband as the benevolent dictator, whose

168
authority over financial matters is justified by her belief that he works for the good of
the family and their future (Kibria, 1995:297). Further, surrendering to the financial
authority of men reinforces traditional beliefs regarding gender roles, as sanctioned by
patriarchal norms in society. Their contribution to their husbands family and kin
corresponds to the classic patriarchal pattern that a married womans labour is the
property of her husband and his family (Kandiyoti, 1988:279). This is also evident from
the following narrative of her husband who, like other male interviewed workers,
believed in controlling female income.

It is good that women are earning. But a girl should give her earnings to
her father or husband. [.....] Women cannot take good decisions about
spending money. They do not know how to utilise money properly. They do
not have experience. So my wife gives me her income. [.....] I am not angry
with her if she does not want to give. But I think she should give it to me. I
am her guardian. [.....] I spend our income for the family and sometimes she
takes some money from me. As a man it is my responsibility to feed my
family members.
-Husband of the above cited EPZ worker

He appreciates womens income but perceives that they should surrender their
income to men since, as household heads, feeding family members is mens
responsibility. In justifying their position, men deny womens agency and argue that
women cannot utilise money properly. Even though he said he was not angry if she did
not want to give him her income, I would suggest that since he wants to control her
income, it is likely, as explained below, that he would be antagonistic in such
circumstances. He believes in male guardianship, which illustrates that factory work has
not changed the notion of gender subordination, in the sense that women depend on
mens protection, although it may have reduced their dependence on mens provision
(Razavi, 1999:676). The patriarchal bargain requires a woman to rely on male
protection and provision, since she is considered the dependant of her father or husband
who provides for her. Mens insights into womens dependence on them shape their
perceptions about womens income, whereas womens belief in traditional notions of
male protection and provision influence them to put their income under mens control
(Mather, 1982, cited in Wolf, 1990a:30; Kabeer, 1997:265). Biographies suggest that

169
husbands perceptions, about the likely impact of womens employment, were linked to
matrimonial relationships. Irrespective of their marital status, the majority of male
respondents (73%) viewed womens employment as adversely affecting patriarchal
power relations within the family.

I will not let my wife work. [.....] When a woman earns, she feels that she
does not depend on her husband for living. So they do not listen to their
husband. [.....] If her husband tells her anything she will answer back that
she earns and is not dependent on his income. Their courage goes up. They
become too free.
-An unmarried male EPZ worker aged 23

Men are afraid of womens stable earnings, since they persistently remind them
that they cannot afford to meet all their familial needs. They perceive that female wages
serve to weaken their power base within the home. As such, the man cited above states
that he will not allow his wife to take factory work, since he feels that he would not be
able to dominate her if she earned a steady income herself. He believes that independent
income gives women courage and some sort of agency to exercise their own judgement,
which he identifies as a threat to patriarchal control over the family. Men subscribe to
the belief that womens wages affect the balance of power between men and women.
This belief can influence them to view womens income with hostility (Kabeer,
1997:270). As such, the following woman had to fight with her husband, when he
discovered that his wife retained a part of her salary every month, without his
knowledge.

Earlier I kept some money and gave my husband the rest. He did not know.
I sent that money to my parents. But once he heard me talking to my father
over the phone about the money and he was very violent. [.....] After that I
stopped keeping money. Now I give him all my wages as soon as I come
home. But he thinks I lie. He records my daily overtime work on a calendar.
[.....] He gives me some money. I do some small purchases for the family.
-A married female EPZ worker aged 23

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 Her husband was hostile towards her when he discovered that she was
withholding some money, without his knowledge. He perceived her behaviour as a
threat to his dominance and through violence he re-established his patriarchal control
over his wife. Biographies of married women I interviewed in this research reveal that
preserving a portion of their wages covertly is a common practice among them, despite
the possibility of physical violence from their husbands. In this case, usually their natal
families benefitted from their contributions, but in some cases, they kept money for the
future as well.

I hold a part of my salary every month secretly. I have a bank account. I

save the money for my future. The rest of the money I give my husband and it
makes him happy. [.....] He keeps some money from that and gives me the
rest back. I maintain my family expenditure with this money.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 39

Her husband was not aware of her secret savings. Her motive to save is to be
prepared for any adversity that may arise in the future and at present, since she wants to
keep her husband happy, she gives him the rest of her income. Whatever she gives
makes him happy, since she is taking male supremacy for granted but it is not unlikely
that disclosure of her secret savings might put her in a violent situation, as experienced
by the woman, quoted previously. She, like a very small portion of respondents who had
no male household head, had greater control over her wages, because her husband did
not take primary responsibility for the family, rather he relied on her. Nevertheless, this
placed a double burden upon her, as discussed below. It is more usually the case,
however, that female factory workers including those who are unmarried and living
with family, usually cannot control their monthly wages.

The following woman is the breadwinner for her family and she, despite her
earnings, cannot spend money for her needs. Her parents perceptions and expectations
from her resulted in her losing control over her earnings. She turned into a reflection of
the image of being a dutiful daughter to her parents.

My parents take my wages as soon as I come home. If I do not give all my

wages my mother is very angry. [.....] My parents think that I would get

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 spoilt if I keep money with me. But sometimes I need some money for my own
expenses. I feel very bad if they do not give me some money when I ask. [.....]
From my earnings they pay the house rent, utility bills and do the shopping.
My father cannot work regularly because of his sickness. My mother also
does not work.
-An unmarried female n-EPZ worker aged 19

My daughter is very good. She gives me all her earnings as soon as she
comes home. She is not like other girls who spend money on their own and
do not think of their families. She takes money from me when she requires.
-Mother of the above cited n-EPZ worker

She perceives her daughter to be good, since she surrenders her income to her.
Nevertheless, having a steady income every month, yet being unable to spend money on
her own needs, is a matter of dissatisfaction for her, although her mother said that she
gave her money when she needed it. Biographies reveal that women exercise little
control over their own earnings, since they are expected to surrender their wages to their
household heads. Female workers living on their own in urban areas or those who are
heads of their households are able to retain greater control over their earnings, since
there is no one to dominate them. However, they are to conform to the custom of
remitting wages for their family sustenance. Since men want to maintain patriarchal
control over the family, they want and expect women to surrender their income to them.
Further, women are taught to believe in male provision through the process of
socialisation. As such, despite earning an independent income, women, in my empirical
research, frequently appeared to me to be conforming to the traditional notion of
patriarchy. On the other hand, the financial resources they gain through waged work
provide them with a means to contest their subordination in daily life (Mills, 2003:48;
Kabeer 1997:266). Nonetheless, they cannot or do not utilise their financial base
accordingly, since they are usually devalued and, to some extent, they also deny their
own agency and surrender to male dominance to a greater level, because of possible
hostility from men. Their earnings are deemed to be a part of their household income
and are allocated as the household heads desire.

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 Although resource theory (Blood & Wolfe, 1960) argues that womens
contribution of their wages to the household budget should increase their bargaining
power within the household, evidence suggests that womens participation in paid
employment and contribution to family expenditure does not necessarily change their
position within the family to a great degree. Pyke (1994:74) argues that womens
contribution to family finances may not always bring them a greater power within the
family, since men perceive womens earnings as a threat to their power base. Mens
perceptions of womens earnings, as well as of their role as family breadwinner,
influence women to surrender to male dominance, as part of their compliance with
patriarchal beliefs and values. Their work on the factory floor brings them wages but
also increases their workload, since they are also expected to perform reproductive and
household labour.

Gender roles and reproductive tasks in the household

Empirical evidence suggests that womens participation in the factory work is

largely economically motivated and they view their waged work as an unavoidable
necessity for their families. The majority of them (87%) contributed all or most of their
salary to family and household expenses. They make a substantial economic
contribution to their familys welfare, without which all of them argued their families
would be in a difficult situation. One of the striking features of patriarchy is the notion
that the male is the breadwinner in the family, while women rely on mens provision.
Traditionally, women perform all household tasks, which are unpaid, while men
participate in income earning activities. Since men alone cannot perform their
traditional role of family bread earner, because of financial scarcity, women participate
in so called mens work and help them for family survival. Although women help men
financially, interviews reveal that men rarely support women in performing
reproductive and household tasks. As such, women face a pile of work inside their
households. Their lives are neatly divided into a paid productive phase and an unpaid
reproductive phase. Their lives become split simultaneously between home and factory,
reproduction and production, domestic labour and waged labour.

I am a housewife. So I do all household activities. [.....] I wake up by five in

the morning. I clean the house and wash all the dishes (that we left

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 unwashed last night). Then I prepare food for the whole day. I take my
shower and sometimes wash some clothes of my son and husband. I bring
water from the tube well, feed my son and prepare my tiffin carrier for the
office. I serve the food and eat breakfast with my husband. I leave for the
office by 7:30am. [.....] I come back home from office at 11:15 nowadays.
On my way back home from the office sometimes I do little shopping like
purchasing vegetables and other necessary stuff for the family. I then clean
the room, warm up the food and then we eat together. Thereafter I prepare
the bed and go to sleep. [...] My husband is a rickshaw puller. I have a four
year old son. He takes care of my son when he comes back home for lunch.
[.....] I need help but I do not want him doing housework. I think men should
not do household work. My mother says that men become less intelligent if
they perform household works like women. I feel bad that my husband takes
care of my son when I am away. It is my duty.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 23

It is evident from her account that she does the male shopping for her family
although market place in Bangladesh is classified as a male place and men purchase
household food needs (Kabeer, 1997:277). Because of her employment she, like many
women I interviewed, gained access to cash resources which enabled her to perform
such traditional male task. This is indeed an important shift in Bangladeshi society
that has taken place over the years due to the advent of garment factories and womens
employment in paid jobs. However, despite her being a full time worker she, like all
other married workers, places more emphasis on her housewife identity. The sexual
division of labour in the society teaches women to regard themselves primarily as
housewives and their husbands as workers. As such, although married working
women require help in meeting household activities, they do not expect their husbands
performing reproductive activities with them, because of their traditional belief that men
should not be involved in reproductive roles. Their traditional belief makes them feel
discomfort, as they cannot perform all their household activities properly because of
their employment. Nevertheless, biographies reveal that married women perform the
majority of household activities, alongside their factory work, as there is no-one in the
family to help them. They get little help from their husbands, which is not enough for
them but since they perceive domestic work to be womens work they do not expect

174
greater help from their husbands. Women who migrated with their family articulated
that they usually did not perform household activities. Their mothers did cleaning,
cooking and all other household activities since they became the breadwinner of the
family.

In the village home she (daughter) used to do all the household work with
her mother. Here she cannot manage time. So her mother does all the
domestic work. She goes early in the morning and comes in the evening. She
is very tired when she is back from her job. [.....] These are womens work.
Sometimes she helps her mother. On holidays she works with her mother in
the home.
-Father of a 20 year old unmarried female EPZ worker

The socially constructed perception of men about gender roles is expressed in the
above narration. The father of the woman knows her daughter is very tired, when she
gets back from her job, but since housework is termed womens work, she is expected
to perform those tasks when it is possible for her. Factory work, to a great extent, has
relieved unmarried women living with family from domestic burdens, since their
mothers perform the household activities. However, once married the majority of
unmarried women (81%) said that they would prefer rather than expect their husbands
to help them in household works, when it was needed.

I live here alone. So I do all my household work. Here there is no-one to

help me. Here there is no-one to ask me about anything. [.....] Earlier I lived
with one of our distant relations. They expected me to work in their house in
the evening. It was too much. I needed some rest. So I left. [.....] Housework
is my responsibility. I dont want to be sitting when my husband is working
in the house. I would like him to help when I really need that. When I do not
feel well or I am very tired.
-An unmarried female n-EPZ worker aged 18

Interviews reveal that unmarried women living with relatives have to perform
domestic tasks like other married workers or those who do not participate in wage
employment. As such, after a long day on the factory floor, they are left with no time on

175
their own. The woman quoted above did not like cooking or washing in the evenings
but frequently felt pressure from her relatives. New living arrangements did not liberate
her from domestic works but she felt a bit freer, since there was less pressure on her.
She, like all participants of this research, expressed a belief in the traditional gender
roles and relations formulated under patriarchy, which teaches that women have to
perform reproductive activities within the household. Therefore, she wanted to perform
these tasks and felt that her husband should help her in domestic tasks only when she
was very tired or sick. She, like all other interviewed women, could not go beyond
sexual division of labour to a greater extent, because of patriarchal beliefs and values.

I am a sewing machine operator. I work in the factory from 8am until 8pm.
In the house I do cooking, cleaning, washing and all other domestic tasks.
[.....] My husband is a night guard. He works from 10pm until 6am. He takes
our children to school and brings them home. He feeds them when I am
away. He is very tired from his work but does a lot of work in the home.
Sometimes he does the shopping also. [.....] I do not want him to wash the
dishes or clean the house. Men cannot work like a woman.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 24

Her husband got very tired from his night work but she did not appear (or wish to
appear) tired working all hours. She believed that men cannot work like women.
Consequently, she performed all labour-intensive and time-consuming domestic tasks
alongside her factory work and bore a heavy burden. Male household members usually
do the shopping because this involves engaging in the (male) public sphere but do not
shoulder any responsibility for the activities, which are socially regarded as womens
work (Hossain, Jahan & Sobhan, 1988:130; Hadjicostandi, 1990:77). Although
biographies reveal that women perform male tasks like shopping, all male respondents
believed in line with women, that domestic work is womens work and women can
perform these tasks better since they learn them from their mothers.

Cooking, cleaning, washing, etc. are womens work. I think men should not
do this work. They should not go in the kitchen. These are not their tasks.
Women are good for these works. Allah has divided work for men and
women. Women will remain in the house and do household work and men

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 will go out for earnings. [.....] If both of them work only then men can help
women in domestic tasks. They can do the shopping. They can bring water if
there is no supply etc. [.....] Now I do everything since I am unmarried.
-An unmarried male EPZ worker aged 22

He believes that Allah has assigned men and women with distinct tasks. As such,
men should not perform what are defined as womens tasks. Men often try to utilise
religion to benefit and accordingly, he linked religion to sexual divisions of labour.
However, he, like all other male respondents, thinks that men only can help women in
performing domestic tasks provided they both work, because these are not their
responsibility. The distinction between womens work and mens work evolves through
the process of socialisation of male and female in society. I perceived and empirical
evidence reveals that men were looked down upon if they did domestic work, since it
was not often socially accepted. As a result, women also usually did not want men
doing reproductive activities at household levels. Society teaches that women will
perform all household works whilst men will earn for the family and will engage in
income generating activities. In consequence, since women perform both productive and
reproductive activities, they usually bear the dual burden as housewives and factory
workers.

Neo-classical economists treat individual household members as disembodied

entities whose labour is allocated to different activities on the basis of comparative
advantages (Becker, 1991:78). As such, if the value of womens time is increased, their
participation will be greater in paid employment, resulting in a reduction in their
reproductive tasks, since they will be able to bargain within the family about the
reallocation of domestic tasks. However, resource does not automatically bring
bargaining power within the household. Social norms determine the ability and
willingness to bargain within the family (Agarwal, 1997:11). Context specific social
norms, values and cultures are intervening factors in the ability to transform ones
resources into intra-household power. Both men and women define men as the
breadwinner whose responsibility is maintaining the family. Surrendering wages to men
perpetuates the position of men as head of the family and as the breadwinner (Pahl,
1989:154).

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Conclusion

Women constitute the majority of the workforce and remain at the lowest tiers of
work hierarchy in garment factories. Because of their position in the work structure,
they are accorded little or no respect on the factory floor. They frequently experience
maltreatment from management and are prone to violence and harassment inside
factories from men. They also are vulnerable to violence and harassment on the streets,
as well as in their place of residence. In addition, they frequently suffer from various
health related problems, because of their employment in garment factories. Nevertheless,
on the factory floor they tend to utilise their own agency to resist adversity and
domination from men to some extent. Since women are perceived to be docile, they are
widely employed in garment factories. However, their docility does not imply their
passivity to management. In some cases, as I observed and Siddiqi (2009:170) noted,
sometimes they slowed down their work speed, as a strategy of resistance against
coercive situations. Nonetheless, they appear to conform to traditional social values in
their home. Despite their being steady earners for the family, they usually perceive men
to be the primary breadwinner for the family and surrender their income to their
household heads within the family, since they often are unwilling to challenge the
distribution of domestic power.

In relation to the management and disposal of womens wages, two ways of

seeing the pros and cons of womens bringing an income to the family could be
identified from feminist literature. One line of thinking argues that women have to
surrender their income to their family and they retain no control over their earnings;
rather, they are exploited in their families (Elson & Pearson, 1981a; Greenhalgh, 1985;
Wolf, 1990b). The other line of thinking articulates that income improves womens
bargaining power within the family and they can negotiate with family members in
terms of decision making (Lim, 1983, 1997; Meyer, 2006). Since women surrender their
income to their household heads and men in particular, they decide the disposal of
womens income and thus control their wages, whilst in the absence of any male
household head, women control their own income. From their surrendering income to
household heads, one can assume that women usually do not feel they should control
their income, since they perceive that men know what is better for the family. As such,
parents control unmarried daughters income, while married womens income is

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managed by their husbands. Moreover, by handing over income women keep intact the
norm of male breadwinner and decision maker around which the familial relationship in
Bangladesh is organised (Kabeer, 1991:142). Nevertheless, women are also inclined to
withhold some of their earnings without the knowledge of their household heads. Their
withholding is an indication that they are not willing to surrender all their earnings to
men, but rather they want and try to manage and control their own earnings. Since men
perceive womens income as a threat to the balance of power within family, they tend to
control female income and their desire sometimes leads them to hostility. The
possibility of antagonistic behaviour from men contributes to the surrendering of
womens wages as well as their agency to men. Mens authority over household income
is not uncontested, but established practice and mens expectations limits womens
ability to bargain to some extent. As such, they usually do not engage in collusive
conflict with men within the household over the management of their earnings, rather
their situation is a mixture of cooperation and conflict (Sen, 1990:132). They are
engaged in cooperative conflict, which addresses situations where cooperation is
beneficial to both parties than non-cooperation, but both men and women have
conflicting interests in the choice among cooperative arrangements. Therefore, although
womens income is pooled within the household, their bargaining power in family
matters cannot be explained in economic terms (Folbre, 1986:33).

Womens participation in paid employment does not change domestic relations to

a great extent. According to a Beckerian model (1991), womens increasing
participation in waged employment would reduce their workload in the household
because of their access to resources. However, womens increased participation in paid
employment does not automatically increase their bargaining power within the family
and usually they do not bargain over the reallocation of household tasks, since ability
and willingness to bargain is contextually sensitive. Society believes that women must
be associated with men (Kantor, 2003:428). Womens adherence to social beliefs, norms
and practices limits their ability and willingness to bargain with men within the family.
As a consequence, women go to bed later than male family members and wake up
earlier, since they have to perform the majority of household tasks. I would argue that
their participation in paid employment has brought about little change in culturally
defined notions of female and male role and responsibilities in the family. Housework is
mostly perceived to be womens work. It is embedded in societal belief that it is

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accepted as natural. Therefore, it is unlikely for women to request a reallocation of
gender roles, perhaps because of their belief that men would not listen to their request.
Previous research suggests that waged work gives women a strong lever to create a
power-base in terms of decision making, which enables them to exercise greater control
within the household (Bhachu, 1988:96-97; Pahl, 1989:174). Nonetheless, although
women seem not to challenge the traditional gender roles and relations their perceptions
around these aspects are changing to an extent. As such, they at least expect some help
from men in performing reproductive tasks and men also tend to participate in
reproductive activities like child care. Women also enjoy spending some money on their
own, despite the fact that they have to ask their household heads. These instances
indicate that womens participation in paid employment has brought about some
changes with regard to peoples perceptions about gender roles and relations in the
society to some extent.

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 Chapter VIII: Workers in societal context:
perceptions of positionalities

Introduction

Export-oriented garment factories have provided women with access to and

employment in the formal sector. Their employment in waged jobs has brought them
beyond their traditional confinement within the home and they have got the opportunity
to participate in the labour market alongside men. Womens visible proliferation in
formal sector employment, because of the new international division of labour (Frobel
et al., 1980), has to an extent, challenged the social norms and values in Bangladesh.
For instance, their participation in paid employment with men, constant interaction with
them or moving around beyond the homestead etc. is a violation of traditional social
norms and values. The custom of purdah has supported patriarchy, to spatially limit
womens movement, within the household compound and construct a rigid boundary
between the public and private domains. Nonetheless, increasing participation of
women in factory jobs, signals the weakening of the public/private dichotomy in
Bangladesh (Feldman, 2001:1115). Their presence has enormously changed the street
scenes of urban areas, where export-oriented garment factories are established. They
occupy public places and in the mornings and evenings walk along the streets in groups.
When on the streets, as I observed them, they hardly look to their right or left. It is
perhaps, because of the fact that they are rushing to their destination. It is also not
unlikely that they adopt this strategy to ignore street boys who often make suggestive
comments to them. Conceivably the majority of people are not apprehensive about them,
even though I perceived that people pretend to know everything about the women
working in garment factories. Statements like they are the garment girls; they are
young, unmarried and uneducated rural women; they work in garment factories
because of impoverishment of their families; from people present a branded image
about female factory workers. How do women working in export-oriented garment
factories view themselves? What is their perception about the image of a female factory
worker in society?

In this chapter I address womens perceptions about their position concurrently as

contributing member to household finances within their family and active members of
the broader society. Here I argue that women become self confident and courageous

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because of their participation in waged employment and steady earnings. They also
enjoy freedom of independent movement to an extent. Beyond these positive impacts,
employment in garment factories has negatively affected them as well in the sense that a
negative image has been portrayed of female garment workers. Their negative portrayal
has made their position vulnerable in the society. In the subsequent sections I talk about
these aspects in light of different themes emerging from womens narratives. The
subtitle of each section points to the relevant theme, that I developed, as noted earlier,
during the process of research.

Womens perceptions of their position in the family

Women earn a steady income from their waged work. They employ their time,
energy and skills on the factory floor. In exchange for their labour resources they
receive a wage. Biographies reveal that factory employment, primarily, was a means of
survival for the majority of women and they all typically made their wages available for
household consumption. As mentioned earlier, the great majority of them, in
compliance with traditional social norms, place their earnings in a common pool, which
is commonly managed by their (usually male) household heads. All women I
interviewed, irrespective of their marital status, said that their income was important, in
view of the fact that their families needed the money. The income was important to
these women also since, biographies reveal, it brought them self esteem. All women, as
interviews reveal, felt happy, because of their contribution to family expenses. Their
income was a matter of great satisfaction for them, because they perceived that they
were not dependent on other family members; rather, they actively contributed to their
household expenditure.

I give all my wages to my husband. He manages all our family income. But
I feel happy as I earn every month. I feel independent. [.....] I am not
dependant on my husband to feed me. It is not only his income that we spend
for our familial needs. [.....] I am happy to contribute to our household
expenses.
-A married female EPZ worker aged 26

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 Although her husband controlled her income, she was satisfied that she did not
have to rely on her husband for her living. Despite the fact that women do not directly
control any or all of their income, they feel confident that they not only consume family
earnings but also bring steady income for the family. Bringing an income into the
family has been a source of confidence and self esteem for women (Pahl, 1989:130).
Their contribution to the family is important in supplementing their household financial
resources. Their family requires their earnings for continued existence and their income
is not pocket money for extras or personal luxuries. All women I interviewed for this
study said that their contribution has become increasingly significant to their family
wages and as such, their importance in the family has been enhanced. Biographies
reveal that women, irrespective of their marital status, perceived their position in the
family has changed. The underlying cause for improving their status, as they articulated,
was their financial contribution to subsistence production for their families.

I think my job has changed my position in the family. Previously my father

never asked me anything about any of our family matters. But now my
parents want to know my views. [.....] My father is a rickshaw puller. Earlier
we were struggling for food as he was the only earning member of our five
member family. [.....] I give him all my wages. I contribute more in our
family expenses every month than my father does. I think my parents feel
obliged.
-An unmarried female n-EPZ worker aged 20

She, like the majority of interviewed female workers, articulated that her parents
sought her views in making their family decisions, which perhaps signalled a change in
her position in their family. Women traditionally were regarded as voiceless and men
spoke for them. They were considered powerless and vulnerable. In a wider context, as
Pollart (1981:78) has argued, they primarily view themselves as wives, mothers and
cooks, since they are portrayed along this line in the society. Nevertheless,
anthropological evidence suggests that married women in Bangladesh and in other
South Asian countries enjoy greater authority to an extent in family decision making
processes, because of their motherhood (Das Gupta, 1995:483). Womens labour in the
South Asian context is important to family and husbands are typically more dependent
on their wives for household maintenance. Their dependence enables wives to have

183
more influence in household decisions (Malhotra & Mather, 1997:606). A large portion
of household decisions are related to children, purchase of food and other daily
activities. These decisions usually involve women, while decisions relating to the outer
world, for instance, marriages in the family, market transactions, purchase of assets and
property etc. often tend to be male domains (Malhotra & Mather, 1997:609; Kabeer,
1999:446; Kantor, 2003:430). Motherhood enables women to participate in some
familial matters, where unmarried women are frequently ignored. Against this backdrop,
at least asking unmarried women about their views in family decisions is possibly a
great improvement for them, in terms of their position in the family. This could be seen
to be supported by the basic arguments of resource theory (Blood & Wolfe, 1960),
which articulates that the marital partner with more resources has greater negotiation
power within the household (Fox, 1973:728; McDonald, 1980:848). Since womens
labour is more important to subsistence production and families are dependent on their
income, they are given more value in the family, which to an extent, improves their
position in the familial context. The most common example female factory workers
mentioned as an indication of their change of status in the family was decisions about
job selection. The majority of women (93%) I interviewed for this study articulated that
they themselves decided whether to continue their present job or apply to a new factory.
They made decisions about their job selection, since they had the best knowledge about
working conditions and facilities in factories, because of their continuous interaction
with other factory workers. Their experience in relation to their job was valued in the
family and hence, they were able to make their own decisions about those jobs, which,
interviews with women reveal, they usually made in consultation with other family
members.

Their experience within the public sphere and continuous interaction with other
people changed their perceptions to the extent that their household heads cared for them
in family matters. The women I interviewed seemed more confident about voicing their
views in making family decisions, despite the fact that they had little control over their
earnings. Male control over economic resources indicates the maintenance of the notion
of men as household heads who are responsible for maintaining the family.
Nevertheless, womens exposure to the outer world, because of their participation in
paid employment, has led at least to some changes in the household in relation to
traditional sexual divisions of labour. For instance, as discussed in the previous chapter,

184
men to some extent take care of their children during the time women are away for work.
Mens involvement in household activities indicates changes in the notion of male and
female roles in the family. Obviously, it does not mean that the notion of femininity and
masculinity has radically changed but it perhaps signals that perceptions in society
about gender roles are conceivably changing to some extent. I would argue that this
change has positively impacted on gender relations, at least at household level.

Women workers are in constant interaction with the public sphere because of their
employment. Their interaction begins with their efforts to cope with and adjust to a
strange world. Interviews reveal that women in the course of time build confidence
through their continuous interaction with the external setting beyond their home.

Earlier I was very shy to speak with other people. I was very scared and
could not walk alone on the streets. My husband accompanied me to the bus
stop. [.....] Now I am brave. I do not feel scared anymore. I can talk to
anybody. I am smarter than ever before.
-A married female non-EPZ worker aged 23

While she was spatially confined and had very limited interaction with people, she
did not have the courage to talk to strangers, rather felt scared. Factory work provides
women working in the formal sector with the avenue to constantly interact with many
others beyond their family. They experience how others behave and interact.
Biographies reveal that they feel encouraged when, in the same setting, they see other
women persistently interacting with other people. They constantly observe the setting
and try to behave the way others do. Their constant interaction with other people and
perceptions about the world they are interacting with, thus, brings some changes in them.
Over the course of time they usually try to capitalise all available possibilities of factory
work. Their effort in availing themselves of the opportunities and the prospects and
problems in their way to some extent increases their consciousness as expressed in the
following narratives.

If I had passed the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination I would

have the chance to strive for supervisory positions. But I have nothing to do.
I have to work as an operator as long as I work in garment factories. [.....]

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 Now I know the value of education. If you have more education you earn
more. My parents could not educate me since we were very poor. [.....]I will
try my best to educate my children at the maximum level. It will help them
find a government job. My daughter will have a good marriage with an
educated boy from a good family if I can educate her. Without education life
is full of distresses.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 27

Despite having very good skill in operating sewing machines, she could not move
on to higher positions in her job, because of her lack of required education. Failure in
being able to capitalise the possibilities of factory work, because of lack of education,
along with their desire for better job opportunities for their children, brought about
some changes in their perceptions. Biographies reveal that all women, irrespective of
their marital status, had a high level of educational aspiration for their children, since
they did not want their children to suffer like them. Any job in the formal sector
requires a level of education. As pointed out earlier, employers in the garment sector
also want workers to have some educational attainments, while in recruiting people at
managerial positions they want those who at least completed the Secondary School
Certificate examination (equivalent to GCSE level). Since the majority of women could
not complete secondary level education, broadly because of familial poverty, they often
failed to benefit the most from the opportunities of their garment factory employment.
They realised the importance of education because of the constraints they encountered
in their life. Therefore, they were keen to educate their children so that they could better
their lives. Their motive for educating, especially their daughters, was perhaps
influenced by their belief that they would not have to submit to the adversities they
faced in their life. Customarily, children in Bangladesh take care of their parents in their
old age, in the absence of a social security system provided by the state (Chowdhury,
2004:244). Perhaps the expectation of the majority of married women (77%) from their
children, in their old age, also motivated them to invest in their education. It is the same
motive that encouraged some of them to secretly hold back some money from their
monthly earnings. They saved money so that they could cope with hardships that may
arise in future. They had become more conscious about their life chances and evidence
suggests that their employment in export-oriented garment factories had contributed the
most in this regard.

186
 My husband and I work in the same factory. We are married for nearly
three years. We have not had any children yet. We have decided to wait a
few more years for our first child. [.....] We are now saving for our future.
We are saving for our children. We want to educate them at the maximum
level. We are saving so that we can educate them properly.
-A married female EPZ worker aged 21

Her husband and she are both working and saving money for their children. They
are conscious about their future and have decided to wait a few more years for their first
child. Although, because of cultural inhibitions, it was not possible to ask about family
planning, it appears that they are very conscious about their own family and future. As
biographies reveal, a good number of women (54%) appeared to be very conscious
about their family and life choices. It is plausible that their participation in waged
employment has brought about changes in their views about life and made them more
conscious about life choices. Their consciousness affects them positively and results in
a delaying effect on their marriage and childbearing (Lim, 1983:83). Increased familial
economic demands pushed women to waged employment, which resulted in a positive
association of work, marriage, childbearing and family size. As was noted in Chapter V,
evidence suggested that employed unmarried women marry at an older age in
comparison to those who were married before coming into job. Employment
opportunities thus influence the rise of delayed marriage, as well as delayed motherhood.
Moreover, since childbearing is likely to affect womens earnings, because of the time
demands of child care, I would argue, as biographies reveal, married working women
might be inclined to delay and limit childbearing, which in turn, affects society
positively. From a national perspective, this helps controlling the growth rate of
population in a densely populated country where nearly 142 million people live in
144,000 sq. Km, whilst from individual perspective this is good for women, since early
child bearing involves various risks for their physical and mental health. Moreover,
delayed child bearing gives them the opportunity to save money and spend that for the
education of their children and on their wellbeing in the long run.

187
Womens perceptions of their own image

The construction of gender, under patriarchy, has customarily been a symbol of

male domination and female subordination. Women in Bangladesh are traditionally
positioned at the household level and are assigned tasks that keep them confined within
the homestead, while men specialise in work outside the homestead (Cain, Khanam &
Nahar, 1979:413). They remain in the ondor (private), while the sodor (public) is the
male space. Men exercise authority and power over women and the normative
obligation of men is to provide them with food and shelter. Nonetheless, as was noted
earlier, the changes in traditional socio-economic structures of Bangladesh over the
years, because of poverty, have weakened the material base of mens patriarchal control.
Impoverishment affected their capabilities to provide the family livelihood and thus to
control female labour within the family. Economic hardship forced women to go
beyond ondor and to increasingly participate in paid employment. Womens
participation in waged jobs and regular contribution to family finances further
destabilised male authority in the family. Evidence suggests that womens financial
contribution to family expenditure has created a situation which has brought about some
changes to an extent in the perceptions of social construction of gender roles and
relations. This is, perhaps, a significant social change that has taken place in recent
years in Bangladesh.

However, I perceived from biographic interviews that the most noteworthy

change has taken place at womens level of perceptions about themselves. A great
number (61%) of female workers said that they had become courageous to an extent that
they could speak for themselves, which was not possible for them before starting a
factory job. They perceived that the increasing importance of their earnings to their
family welfare and livelihood made them feel confident, as articulated in the following
narrative of the husband of an EPZ factory worker. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that
it was not always unequivocally welcomed by all men. During interviews with the
following narrator I got the impression that he was not entirely happy about his wifes
changed perceptions, although not antagonistic to his wife.

My wife works in an EPZ factory. I work as a petty trader. But she makes
the most contribution to our living. We have two kids. I take care of them

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 when my wife is away. I take them to school every day. [.....] We bought 30
decimals cultivable land in our village. I bought the land in her name since
it was from her money. [.....] I have a house in the village. I can cultivate the
land. My wife can stitch garments for others. So we might have a better life
in our village home. [.....] I proposed to her several times to go home and
start life there. But she did not agree. She said she will work a few more
years in the factory. [.....] Her behaviour has steadily changed since she is in
the job. Earlier she used to depend on me for everything. But now everything
has changed. [.....] She earns for the family. I think her income has made her
feel more secure. The job has increased her courage so she can argue now.
-Husband of a 25 year old EPZ worker

As articulated by her husband, she plays a key role in her family matters. Her
husband perceived that her courage has increased, since she is the breadwinner for the
family. Beyond contribution to family finances, owning a stable property gave her a
strong power base within the family. Womens contribution to family subsistence and
interaction with other people can raise their consciousness, to the extent that they realise
that they are also entitled to have their own views about family matters. Although, as
biographies suggest, before coming out to work, they used to rely on their family elders,
especially men, for everything, their participation in waged employment appears to
increase their confidence and creates a situation that changes the socially constructed
notion about women that has traditionally dominated in Bangladeshi society.

Women are largely employed in export-oriented garment factories, since they are
perceived to be docile and easy to control (Elson & Pearson, 1981a; Ong, 1991).
Traditionally it was believed that women follow orders and never argue. The
construction of such gender characteristics plays a significant role in the bargaining
process between men and women in society, especially at household level. My own
observation and anecdotal accounts suggest that crying is a strong emotional behaviour
assigned to women as a typical female behaviour. It was pointed out earlier that
sometimes women cry on the factory floor, because of maltreatment from supervisors.
Expression of such emotional behaviour helps to ease the situation inside the factories,
where strict working conditions are maintained. However, my participant observation
and evidence suggests that not all women on the factory floor behave in the way they

189
are socially depicted. Some women express emotional reactions, while others go beyond
the traditional norms. They develop a strategy of resistance by challenging the verbal
abuse in return.

See; the supervisors always shout. Always they use bad language. Earlier I
was always quiet. But now I also shout back. I also use the bad languages as
they do. [.....] If I do not tell anything they will keep doing the same way.
They think I am mad. So they are scared of me. [.....] They do not behave
with me the way they do with others. I know I am very brave.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 24

One day, I found this women shouting back at the supervisor, when he was very
angry with her because of her mistake. This is indeed an irritation for the supervisors
that women will shout back in their face. This sharply contrasts to traditional notions
about women, and as I observed, supervisors feel embarrassed in such situations.
Consequently, as I perceived, they particularly try to avoid using bad language with
women who react defiantly. Some women learn this strategy in the course of time and
utilise it to resist their supervisors behaviour. Some others go beyond this and behave
in a deviant way in such situations, as articulated in the following account.

Supervisors use bad language when we make mistakes or cannot fulfil our
target. Sometimes they even slap. Things were different six years back when
I started the garment factory job. I used to cry at that time. [.....] In one of
my last factories one day a supervisor slapped me. He did not like me at all.
I was so angry that I got up from the chair. I threatened him that I would
break his hands if he did that again with me. He complained to the
production manager (PM). The PM said that what I did was not an
appropriate behaviour for a girl. I became angrier with him and wanted to
know whether the supervisor behaved appropriately. [.....] Nobody thought
that I could behave that way. I also did not realise how I did that. But it
worked tremendously. [.....] Since then I resist when somebody uses bad
words with me. Once in this factory my supervisor was shouting when I
made a mistake. I was very angry and said, Dont shout. Tell me what my
fault is and what I have to do. [.....] I am not scared about anything. I know

190
 my job very well. Wherever I go I will get jobs in garment factories. I do not
care for anything. I never think of the job.
-A married female EPZ worker aged 25

The supervisor went to the production manager, since perhaps he perceived the
reaction of the woman was highly insulting for him, although he did not think that the
woman might also have some feeling of self-respect. Behaviour perceived as deviant for
women is anything that challenges the dominant gender discourses that symbolise
women as submissive in the society. Since intimidating approach from them is
unfamiliar in the society, it is probably surprising for others around them. Nevertheless,
women need to react against maltreatment and interviews with factory workers suggest
that it changes situations. Womens experience and expertise in factory work make
them feel more confident. Their confidence gives them courage and voice, which
enables some of them to react defiantly against the bullying behaviour of the
management. Thus, the interaction on the factory floor to an extent creates an avenue
for women to challenge the predominant patriarchal gender hierarchies on the factory
floor. Biographies reveal that some women try to capitalise upon this opportunity and
go beyond traditional gender norms, although the majority (69%) articulated that they
react in the language of silence, which is traditionally the expected way for women.
Evidence suggests that conforming to gender stereotypes reinforces patriarchal
domination on the factory floor. Then again, biographies reveal, contesting it brings
about some changes in womens situation to a limited extent at the work place.
Notwithstanding this fact, the majority of women do not counter traditional values and
norms, although it is likely that continuous contradiction might change the situation.
Although womens approaches to antagonism on the factory floor are different, they try
to speak for themselves at least at household level. Interviews with women as well as
men reveal that womens perceptions of themselves change in the course of time.
Participation in paid employment, contribution to family living expenses and their
interaction with men, especially on the factory floor, are the most significant factors that
contribute to their changing perceptions of their own image.

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Womens perceptions of movement

Participation in paid employment has given women the opportunity to leave the
confinement of the home. Evidence suggests that a great majority (82%) of women I
interviewed for this research were migrant workers. The migratory pattern of female
factory workers has introduced different types of living arrangements in the urban areas.
It was noted earlier that the majority of women migrated with their families and
relatives and were living in a familial environment, while some others came on their
own and were living independently in urban areas. They rented a room and usually lived
on their own or sometimes lived with other women in the same room without any male
guardian. Womens living arrangements without any male is an exceptional form of
arrangement that emerged because of their participation in waged employment. It is the
most significant change in relation to living arrangement for women in urban areas and
people perhaps have become accustomed to such an arrangement, which is not widely
accepted in Bengali culture (Naved, Newby & Amin, 2001:93). However, even though
they are living without an immediate male guardian, older people, usually landlords,
take the role of guardianship and control womens movements. Biographies reveal, and
as discussed in Chapter V, that landlords exercise their control over women by
imposing various sanctions on them regarding their interactions with strange men,
staying outside during holiday evenings, inviting male friends to their houses etc. Yet,
such living arrangements and household characteristics emerged as a response to the
social change caused by employment opportunities in the formal sector for women.
Although landlords take the role of guardianship, female workers living in such
arrangements enjoy greater autonomy in urban areas.

We enjoy holidays if the factory is closed. Sometimes we watch a movie on

television. Sometimes we visit other friends at their houses. [.....] I do not
have to ask anybody for permission but I always tell my landlord. He is my
guardian here. I do not do anything that will bring me a bad name in the
society. [.....] I commute to my village alone. I spend money for myself.
Sometimes I go for shopping. I can do here what I want such as eating out,
wearing clothes of my choice. [.....] In the village people are very mean.
They would not like these and always tease.
-An unmarried female EPZ worker aged 19

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 She enjoys some sort of liberty because of her employment in garment factories.
Since women live away from their villages, they, as is evident from her narrative, can
do many things which people in rural areas usually do not like. Here, although they
enjoy freedom of independent movement, all women living on their own articulated that
they tried to protect their reputation as a good girl, which is perhaps a more difficult
task. Biographies reveal that women living independently impose self-regulations and
control their own behaviour in their interaction with people, and men in particular. They
do not move alone on the streets and usually do not stay outside their home during the
holiday evenings. More often than not they appreciate the role of landlords and other
older people as their guardians. They appreciate the landlords role as local guardian,
since having a male guardian in the eyes of society enables them to enjoy greater space
and freedom of independent movement without attaching public censure on them.
Furthermore, they pretend to be married and use a nose ring19 to signify their marital
status. They use the identity of a married woman to protect themselves from the
attention of the men with whom they interact. However, evidence suggests that married
women also enjoy some sort of freedom of independent movement, because of their job,
although most of them live with their family20.

Before marriage my parents never allowed me to move alone. I had to take

my younger brother or sister with me. I had the same situation after my
marriage also. [.....] But things changed when I entered into garment
factories. I could meet you here beyond my homestead because of my job.
[.....] Now I work in the factory. I earn money every month. [.....] I give my
wages to my husband. But he gives me when I ask for him. I go for shopping.
I buy things for my children. Sometimes I go alone. But I always tell him
before going out of my home.
-A married female non-EPZ worker aged 25

19
Customarily married women in Bangladesh use a nose ring as a symbol of their married identity.
Divorced and widowed women do not put on nose rings since it sharply contrasts with the meaning of
the ring. Nonetheless evidence shows that women irrespective of their marital status put on nose rings
to protect them from harassment from their male counterparts. Some women articulated that they felt
more secure because of the ring since it gives people around them the impression that they are married
and protected by some man. Therefore, they should not be approached by another man.
20
Biographies reveal that one married interviewed woman lived independently, leaving her family in the
village.

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 Womens independent movement is not generally approved of in Bangladesh.
Consequently, some of their family members usually accompany them when they are
going anywhere. Her taking a job changed the scenario and she could move more
independently. She was the only woman with whom I had in-depth interviews in a place
beyond her factory and home. Women perceive that their factory job gives them the
opportunity of moving independently beyond cultural norms. Womens participation in
paid employment requires them to move around. It is not always convenient for family
members to accompany them on their way to and from factories every day. As such,
their independent commuting has become an accepted norm against traditional social
values. All those I interviewed articulated that their unaccompanied commuting to
factories gave them self confidence and courage and the opportunity of independent
movement. Biographies reveal that they could move independently wherever they felt
was required. It is significant that they gained the freedom of independent movement
because of their participation in waged employment.

Factory work has made women independent. They go to office alone. It has
made them brave. So they now can go anywhere without help. The scenario
of the streets has been changed in recent years. [.....] Lots of girls move
around the streets during holiday afternoons. They are shopping for
themselves. They go to cinemas. They do everything for themselves. They do
not need any help from their male family members. [.....] Earlier my wife did
not go anywhere without me. But now she does not require anybody.
Sometimes she takes money from me and goes alone for shopping. [.....] It is
okay. I do not mind. But I think she should ask me before going. [.....] I think
women should behave properly. They should go with other women. They
should not stay outside (the home) in the evening.
-Husband of a 24 year old EPZ worker

He also works in the garment factory with his wife. He appreciates his wifes
independent movement and does not mind provided she follows the behaviour
appropriate to women as noted earlier. Despite his feeling, he wants to continue
traditional patriarchal control over his wife and wants her to ask him before she goes
anywhere. All male respondents perceived that employment in paid jobs has changed
womens position in society. They have to move alone to attend their offices and their

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independent commuting gave them confidence and courage to move independently.
Their access to paid employment and thus to financial resources gave them the
opportunity to speak for themselves. Although the majority of women interviewed in
this study surrender their earnings, evidence suggests that sometimes they get some
money when they ask their household heads. As such, they can, for example, go out
shopping or for leisure activities and manage to move independently. Interviews with
men reveal that the majority of them (61%) think that women can move independently
but that has to be within certain patriarchal norms. Biographies reveal that usually
women also do not challenge the dominant norms of society. Rather they, to an extent,
enjoy the freedom of independent movement within existing, if more relaxed,
patriarchal norms.

Womens perceptions of peoples attitudes towards them

Even though, as was noted earlier, impoverishment has forced women to take
garment factory work in their quest for a steady income for the family, biographies
reveal that garment work continues to be socially stigmatised in Bangladesh. Female
factory workers and others around them perceive that society has negatively symbolised
women working in garment factories. The social construction of womanhood, in
Bangladesh, does not tend to appreciate womens work outside the home. For some
interviewed women (14%) resistance from family members to their factory job was
perhaps an articulation of such attitudes. Despite the fact that the garment sector in
Bangladesh flourished in the 1980s and more than two million women are now working
in this sector (Human Development Resource Centre, 2008), the attitude of society
towards women working in garment factories has not yet changed very much. It is
perhaps the nature of factory work that contributes to the negative depiction of female
factory workers. The nature of factory work requires women to stay outside the home in
the evenings. It is evident from the following account that those women who stay
outside their home during the evening are treated as bad girls in Bangladeshi society.

Nobody respects a garment worker. People think that garment work is very
low. They think that garment factory women are very bad. [.....] We go home
at night from the factory. Sometimes we stay on the factory floor at night. In
our society only bad girls stay outside the home during the evening. [.....] I

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 do not want any of my relatives to work here. I always tell my children that I
do this job because I have no qualification to take any other job. My parents
could not spend for my education. But I will try to educate you so that you
can take a good job.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 26

All interviewed workers, irrespective of their gender identity, indicated that

people had a negative view about womens participation in garment work. During my
research I observed that nobody perceived this job as being bad for any male worker. It
is perhaps peoples negative attitude towards womens participation in paid
employment that contributes to the negative portrayal of female factory workers. As
was noted earlier, the suggestive comments that women experience from street boys are
likely an expression of an attitude or feeling of a section of society towards them. The
perceptions of factory workers themselves are also shaped by the experiences they gain
from the broader societal perspective. Consequently, they also believe that garment jobs
are bad or that women working in garment factories are bad.

Garment girl is a very bad name. Some people use this name as gali or
expletive. [.....] People think that girls working in these factories always
shout. They work with strange men. They lose morals and become spoiled.
So nobody wants to marry a garment girl. [.....] One of my cousin sisters
works with me in this factory. A couple of months ago she went home as her
parents were talking about her wedding. The groom and his relatives chose
her. Everything was settled and a date was fixed for the wedding. Just one
week before the ceremony the father of the groom broke off the wedding.
They had inquired about my cousin and came to know that she worked in a
garment factory. The father of the groom told my uncle that they would not
take a garment girl as their daughter in law.
-An unmarried female n-EPZ worker aged 19

Interviews reveal that garment factory work is hardly valued in society. The
majority of male respondents perceived that people think of them as low grade workers,
while the interviewed female workers of this study were explicit in their articulation, as
in the following narrative, that people talk badly about garment factory work.

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 People do not know what happens inside the factory. They think that we
always joke and laugh with strange men. They believe word of mouth. They
talk badly about female factory workers. They do not see how we behave on
the streets. They believe that we all are bad. [.....] Some women are bad.
They do bad things. They do not think about their future. They are free. But I
am not like them. I behave properly. [.....] Perhaps people do not like us
walking along the streets. But I have to support my family.
-An unmarried female n-EPZ worker aged 20

Womens autonomy and visible independent movement is linked to the negative

symbolisation of female factory workers and, for example, to the assumption that they
will do anything for money. Such perceptions make womens position vulnerable in
society in various ways as the following narratives illustrate.

Garment girls are very bad. They do everything for money. Some of them
come here leaving husband and children in the village. They live here with
others for money. [.....] I have four girl friends from my previous jobs. They
all work in different factories. They do not know each other. I pass my time
with them. [....] I would not marry any of them. I would marry a village girl.
[.....] These girls are very bad. They talk loudly. They do not feel shy. They
do not respect others.
-An unmarried male n-EPZ worker aged 20

I married my husband on my own. We loved each other. We worked in the

same factory at that time. [.....] Before our marriage one day his mother
came to the factory gate during lunch to see me. After a few days he along
with his mother went to my house and proposed to my landlord about our
wedding. My landlord arranged our marriage and we started living together
in my house. [.....] Sometimes he used to go to see his mother. But in a few
months he changed a lot. He began living with his mother. I did not
understand anything. [.....] Sometimes he used to come to see me. One day I
followed him to his house. [.....] He was very violent when he saw me there. I
was also very upset. I did not understand what to do. He was already

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 married and had a child. His wife at that time was pregnant again. [.....] I
came back to my house. I am now eight months pregnant. My parents do not
know my story. I cannot show them my face. [.....] Recently he has changed
his job. I do not know his new factory. Sometimes he comes here and takes
money from me.
-A married female n-EPZ worker aged 21

Both narratives indicate the prevalence of vulnerability of female factory workers

in society, because of mens attitude towards them. Men exploit women and benefit
from their exploitation. Some women may get involved with men in good faith and
experience destitution. It is unlikely that they will get any support from their families
and others around them in these situations; rather, people may be likely to blame them
for their sufferings, since many people still perceive women who move out of the
homestead into the public (male) space, as both provocative and offensive (Abdullah &
Zeidenstein, forthcoming, cited in Cain, Khanam & Nahar, 1979:95). Although women
have been coming out for employment since the 1970s, peoples perceptions about
gender roles and relations in Bangladeshi society have not changed as much as might be
expected over the years. However, this is not to disregard the significance of changes
that have occurred and are occurring in Bangladesh, because of womens participation in
waged employment.

I would argue that people perceive womens integration into the labour force as a
threat to prevailing socio-cultural norms that have defined traditional gender relations
and attributes. The nature of factory work necessitates that women stay outside their
home for extended periods of time. Womens constant interaction with the outer world,
their independent movement and autonomy do not conform to the traditional view and
this can lead people to talk badly about female factory workers. Such negative
portrayals of women working in garment factories can make their position in society
vulnerable.

Conclusion

Access to waged employment and thus to financial resources enables women to

contribute to their family finances. Their contributing role in the household economy

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enhances their position, to a certain degree, in the family. Conversely, very few female
respondents could give specific instances regarding the improvement of status in the
family. Despite the fact that women may enjoy greater freedom of movement, they are
usually required to ask permission from household heads. Nevertheless, their role as an
earning member of the family contributes to the development of self esteem and self
confidence. Their views may be more likely to be sought in making family decisions,
even though biographies reveal that unmarried women are not keen to participate in
decisions relating to their marriage.

Marriage in Bangladesh is traditionally arranged by families and men and women

tend to rely on their parents for finding suitable spouses and arranging the wedding.
Based on my own experience and Whites (1992:100) note about wedding arrangements
of women from her own research about gender class relations in Bangladesh, I would
argue that usually unmarried Bangladeshi women, especially in rural society, are
traditionally supposed to remain ignorant and detached from their marriage discussions
and decisions, although there is no such pressure on men. Moreover, anecdotal accounts
articulate that it is by convention indelicate for a woman to show any open interest on
her own marriage. The processes of socialisation teach them to infer passivity and rely
on their guardians regarding their marriage arrangements. They are taught to perceive
that their guardians know what is best for them. Unmarried women also do not tend to
perceive their male co-workers as prospective marriage partners. It is perhaps due to the
fact that such marriage involves the risk that the partner might disappear by changing
their job and place of living. Perhaps the fear about finding a marriage partner from a
different region also contributes to their reliance on parents for selecting a groom from
their own area. Nevertheless, although women do not decide their marriage partners, it is
likely that they would have the opportunity to put their own views and consent in their
marriage decisions, since their opinions are sought in the making of family decisions.
Marriages in Bangladesh are predominantly arranged with relatively few free choice or
love marriages. The custom and concept of marriage in Bangladesh has not changed yet
but there is a chance that women would be better able to negotiate the process of
marriage, because of their greater confidence, developed through their participation in
waged employment.

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 Garment factory work provides women with many possibilities but they continue
to cope with the negative light in which they are portrayed by society. However, they try
to utilise the possibilities of waged employment, which is shifting the notion of
traditional social constructions of gender roles and relations to some extent. Despite this
fact, the majority of them articulated that they would stop working if their family could
fulfil all their financial requirements without their participation in waged employment.
Women entered waged employment because their familial needs necessitated their
additional income. It is likely that they applied their agency in the form of bargaining
and negotiating to pursue and exercise their choice of job, even in the face of opposition
from other family members. Employment in garment factories gives them access to
financial resources and human capital. Although the majority of them do not control all
their earnings, they spend some money to an extent on their own. The work environment
inside the factories is harsh and they have limited promotional opportunities in their job.
These situations leave them the scope of exercising their own agency to some extent in
order to try to extract greater benefit from factory work. Moreover, factory employment
gives them the opportunity to leave the traditional confines of the home and enjoy
freedom of independent movement to some extent. They are contributing to their
household finances through their earnings, which their family require. Against this
backdrop, it is difficult to explain the complexities of their thinking, in relation to their
decision to leave waged employment in garment factories. The harsh working conditions
and their experience on the factory floor might be influencing factors in their decisions
about continuation in the job. It is also not unlikely that their negative image and
vulnerability in society as garment workers, as well as the double burden of both
productive and reproductive tasks they bear because of their job might have contributed
to such feelings.

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 Chapter IX: Conclusion: the final thoughts

Introduction

The research intention that guided this study was to examine the implications of
paid employment for women working in the export-oriented garment factories in
Bangladesh. This, I now believe was an ambitious project because, as my field
experiences illustrated, researching women as a man, especially in the context of a
predominant Muslim country, whilst not entirely impossible, was certainly intricate. In
this study, I employed my theoretical understandings of the process of knowledge
production. Since knowledge is contextual and every individual experiences social
reality differently, I tried to explore, comprehend and analyse individual voices about
the everyday experiences of research participants, who took part in this study. The
overall aim of this ethnographic study was to explore womens lived experiences
concurrently as factory workers, as members of their respective households and as
actors within a wider societal context. Ethnographic research is usually concerned with
producing descriptions and interpretations of the meanings and functions of human
actions (Hammersly & Atkinson, 1995:25). Accordingly, in this research, rather than
just describing the day-to-day interactions of female factory workers, I explicitly
interrogated the lived experiences of women working in garment factories, and
presented the analysis of data in the form of verbal descriptions and explanations,
although I also employed structured forms of data collection and quantitative data
analysis as secondary to qualitative research approaches. I tried to explore research
participants perceptions of employment in garment factories, of the nature and structure
of garment factory work, of their conditions and positions within broader societal
context where they continually interact as well as their perceptions about their own
images.

This is the final chapter of this thesis, where I discuss the conclusion of this study
under the following themes: womens employment in garment factories, methodology
and significance of research and the implications of waged employment for Bangladeshi
women.

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Women and employment in garment factories

Increasing numbers of women seeking waged employment has been one of the
most momentous trends in post-independent Bangladesh. Although womens working
outside the homestead has conventionally carried negative social status and as such they
had little scope of employment, the nine month long independence war in 1971 forced
self reliance on a large number of widows and rape victims, whilst a subsequent famine
in 1974 increased the number of both women and men constantly experiencing
economic insecurities. The harsh realities of life, because of extensive poverty,
compelled women to participate in waged employment, whilst income from womens
waged labour became essential for many families for their survival (Hossain, Jahan &
Sobhan, 1988:112). The establishment of the garment sector in the 1980s and the
expansion of employment opportunities improved womens participation in the labour
market (Feldman, 2001:1099). The government of Bangladesh engineered the process
of establishing export-oriented garment industries in the country and bringing women to
these industries and thus to the productive sector of the economy. A key reason why
women take jobs is due to material necessity and garment factory work for them is an
attractive income generating alternative to available job opportunities in the informal
sector. Prior to the advent of garment factories, women had limited employment
opportunities in the formal sector. Some educated women worked as primary school
teachers and family planning assistants (Feldman, 1992:120). However, appointment to
these jobs required a minimum level of education and since the majority of women
lacked educational qualifications, available informal sector jobs were the only means for
their survival. They worked as domestic servants, agricultural waged labours, petty
traders, and as casual workers in other outdoor sites like construction fields (Kabeer,
2004:14). The nature of most of these informal sector activities was that they were
extensions of womens domestic roles to some extent, and required long hours but paid
little. Domestic work, for instance, requires working from early in the morning to late at
night, whilst construction work is very hard on the body and incurs risk of physical
injuries. Moreover, these jobs were seasonal and as such, wages fluctuated. In addition,
most of these informal sector activities paid in kind, for example, food instead of cash
and therefore women gained little access to cash resources. Since they essentially
remained confined within the informal labour market, their contribution to the economy
remained invisible and as such, they continued to be marginalised. With the expansion

202
of export-oriented industries they gained access to the formal labour market through
their employment in garment factories, where obtaining a job is relatively easy,
requiring little or no education and prior training.

Womens employment became a legitimate issue in discourse when liberal

feminists and the women in development (WID) movement within liberal development
thinking sought womens integration into development processes. As discussed in
chapter II, the liberal development approach assumed industrialisation as the strategy to
foster economic development in Third World countries. Modernisation, development
and industrialisation have sometimes been treated as synonymous (and therefore) the
view that development is impossible without industrialisation remains a potent one
(Cheteway & Allen, 2000:510). Development planners viewed development as a linear
process, which would follow Rostows (1960) stages of growth theory. However, they
paid very little attention to womens experiences during the first two development
decades. They ignored womens traditional productive roles in the economy and despite
their being active participants in productive activities, development strategies
marginalised their labour (Wright, 1997:75, 77). The WID movement held that
development efforts were negatively affecting women in Third World countries and
emphasised their economic independence as the key to freeing them from their
subordinate position within society. The original concept of WID was based on the
adverse impact of inappropriate economic development programs that undercut
womens economic activities by treating them only as mothers. The solution [.....] was
to design development programs so that women were integrated into them (Tinker,
1990:39). The call from the WID proponents hugely impacted on development policy
planners and they urged for employment generation as a means of womens integration
into development processes. Since the 1970s, export-oriented industrialisation in
developing countries has been the most significant tool for generating employment for
and integrating women into the processes of development. Export-oriented
manufacturing units brought a sudden increase of job opportunities and a substantial
integration of women into the formal labour force (Safa, 1981:432). The WID
proponents argued for employment generation as a means of womens integration into
the development process and their emancipation from subordinate positions in society,
which broadly heralded two contesting views in discourse in relation to the implications
of employment on women. It is widely argued in the literature that women are either

203
liberated through waged employment or additionally exploited because of their
integration into waged labour.

Methodology and significance of research

My research was situated within this emancipation/exploitation dichotomy and

for the purpose of research I adopted both feminist and broader sociological research
methodologies in exploring the lived experiences of female factory workers. This
ethnographic research was a blending of both qualitative and quantitative approaches. I
concurrently utilised unstructured interviews to explore womens perceptions as
garment workers, semi-structured interviews to examine the views of family elders
about their female household members working in garment factories and structured
interviews to study the views of both women and men from a broader generalised
standpoint. My research focused primarily on women but also included men as research
participants. The inclusion of men and obtaining their views about female factory
workers was significant, as women are frequently oppressed by men through patriarchal
relations. Since women do not live in isolation, I perceived the inclusion of men into the
research as important to truly grasp the social realities of female factory workers.
Bringing men into the analysis helped me to understand the ways in which their
perceptions are socially constructed. Diversity of views and individual perceptions were
central to this research. In traditional research, he is the norm and she is the other
while in this research I took womens experiences as central and drew heavily on
feminist perspectives (Klein, 1983:91). I believe that people understand and can talk
about their lives. My belief in peoples agency influenced me to explore and understand
womens experiences, perceptions, attitudes, behaviour and interactions in a descriptive
form. One of the strengths of this research is recognition of womens agency. Women,
in traditional research processes, remained invisible and subordinated, since researchers
have spoken for them. In this research attempts have been made so that they moved
from silence into speech and spoke for themselves.

Implications of factory employment for Bangladeshi women

Garment factory work, from an economic point of view, is a more lucrative

alternative for women compared with agricultural work or domestic services. Their
participation in factory work made their presence and contribution increasingly visible

204
in the national economy. Moreover, at least in comparison to many informal sector jobs,
factory employment is less physical and gives them the flavour of working in a modern
working environment. From this perspective, employment in export-oriented garment
factories considerably improved womens position in the labour market. From an
integrationist standpoint garment factory employment is a positive measure towards
womens emancipation from their long-established subordinated positions (Wright,
1997:87). Although the gendered separation of spheres culturally defined private
spheres as their proper place, through the introduction and expansion of export-
oriented new market factories, women gained the opportunity to move from the private
sphere to the public sphere and to participate in paid employment in the formal sector of
the economy.

More often than not they have to utilise their agency to pursue their decision to
work in garment factories. The adversities of poverty and the opportunities emanating
from the establishment of export-oriented garment factories concurrently have
influenced them to utilise their agency in the form of bargaining and negotiation to
break the norm of male domination and purdah within patriarchal social relations.
Utilisation of agency has enabled women to gain access to the labour market in the
formal sector and to financial resources, which otherwise was hardly possible in past,
because of their lack of required education. Women and their families benefit
economically from garment factory work whilst factories also benefit. Employers take
advantage of the traditional notion that womens earning is a supplement to the
household income since they share mens income and therefore keep their wages low.
Nevertheless, low wages do not mean that they are poorly paid relative to all other jobs
in the informal economy available to them. The wages they earn from export-oriented
garment factories are usually higher than what they would as petty traders or domestic
workers. In addition, whatever they earn from garment factories tends to be far steadier
than informal sector earnings.

Employment in garment factories enables women to leave the confines of the

home and its patriarchal constraints to the extent that they enjoy relative autonomy and
freedom of independent movement. Since factory work loosens patriarchal control over
their individual behaviour, they enjoy some sort of personal freedom. They gain the
opportunity to enjoy the companionship of other women and men from different regions,

205
which in turn enables them to develop and widen their social networks and enhance
their life choices. However, their personal freedom comes at the price of social stigma.
They bear a damaged identity and people talk badly about them, since they are
considered to be morally degraded. Although they are contributing to their families and
to the economic development of the country, garment factory work continues to be
socially stigmatised. Women working in garment factories are frequently subject to
teasing and taunts- the most common is garment girl which bears a bad image in
society. They are perceived as an other invading public (male) spheres beyond their
proper place and as such they experience offensive behaviour and harassment from
men while they are on the streets. They may also experience offensive behaviour in
their places of residence as well as to some extent at their work places. As factory
workers they are positioned at the lowest tiers of work hierarchy and are accorded little
or no respect on the factory floor, but rather management adopts despotic labour control
mechanisms which sometimes involve physical violence.

Garment factory management constantly try to increase workers productivity and

hence employ such mechanisms that workers also have to accelerate production. The
organisation of production in garment factories is planned out by management
according to time and motion studies (Buraway, 1979:246) forcing women to maintain a
smooth flow of production without interruption. Management widely use maltreatment
as a means of labour control and disciplinary mechanism. Workers enjoy limited
freedom of movement on the factory floor, because of high levels of discipline and
control. They frequently experience harsh working conditions on the factory floor. The
organisation of work structure inhibits the feeling of solidarity among them, preventing
effective collective resistance of the harsh working conditions. The nature of factory
production keeps them interdependent. Therefore, failure in efficient and speedy task
completion of one worker creates a situation where other workers on the production line
also fail to meet their targets. They all then blame the weakest link and sometimes
complain about each other. Moreover, they get little chance to interact with each other
beyond the factory floor. At the end of the day they tend to be extremely exhausted,
while in the morning they rush for factory buses. Their working lives are organised in
such a way that the feeling of solidarity cannot easily flourish. However, this does not
necessarily mean that they all extend their docility and absorb harsh conditions inside
factories because of lack of cohesion. The rigidity of the working environment and

206
despotic labour management creates agency in some women and they resist
maltreatment from men. Their skills in needlework and availability of jobs give them
the courage and confidence to withstand mens hostility towards women on the factory
floor.

Export-oriented garment factories not only provide gainful employment to women

categorised as unskilled but also provide them with experience and basic work skills
indispensable for future advancement. Whilst factory employment for women offers
limited promotional prospects, the Bangladeshi female workers in garment factories
utilise their agency and social capital, developed through continuous interaction with
other workers, and adopt horizontal mobility as a strategy in the face of the constraints
of vertical mobility. Since their work experience on the factory floors enhances their
employability and self-worth, they adopt horizontal mobility as a means of increment
through wage negotiations between factories. Earning an income increases womens
self esteem and confidence, and raises their consciousness.

Nevertheless, the structure of garment factory work remains highly segregated

along gender lines. Managerial positions are almost exclusively taken by men and there
is a large gender gap between men and women in the work hierarchy. Mostly men work
at the top of the occupational ladder, whereas women remain at the bottom of the
structure. The jobs men do bring them higher status and wages, whilst women perform
the least paid jobs and are accorded a lower status. Womens status and position on the
factory floor are defined by the traditional patriarchal norms which keep close control
over them. At the household level womens labour power is a resource of the family and
controlled by patriarchal family norms whilst participation in waged labour extends this
control to patriarchal management on the factory floor. Since the norms of patriarchal
domination are employed inside factories, the bargaining power between management
and women remains unequal. As such, they perform routine and repetitive tasks in harsh
working conditions for long hours and low wages, which can be seen to be exploitative
(Sargent & Matthews, 1999:213). Further, since despotic labour mechanisms are
practised on the factory floor, as factory workers they lack the ability to say no once
they are inside factories. Their inability to say no leaves factory management with the
scope for neglecting issues related to labour welfare in garment factories (Hosmer &
masten, 1995:292), As such, factory management is little concerned with workers

207
health and wellbeing at the workplace. Even though the physical facilities and
conditions of garment factories are relatively clean and comfortable, workers tend to
suffer from various physical and mental health related problems like headaches,
eyesight related problems, respiratory problems, gastro-intestinal problems and fatigue.

Garment factories provide women with gainful employment and a steady income,
however, factory management hardly follows the prescribed rules and regulations with
regard to labour welfare. They sometimes try to deprive workers of their due financial
benefits and other related facilities and to influence them to lie before foreign buyers
about the facilities they are providing for factory workers. Thus, factory management
exploits women in different ways. The utilisation of the labour power of another person,
without giving a just and equivalent return, is designated as worker exploitation
(Webster, 1971, cited in Sargent & Matthews, op cit.). Moreover, whatever wages
women take home, they usually surrender their income to their household heads,
especially to men. Surrendering earnings to family finances does not mean that women
willingly continue to extend their submissiveness to men as their mothers may have
done. Some women, rather, tend to exercise control over their earnings to an extent but
since men tend to perceive womens income to be a threat to their domination within the
family, their perception about womens income and their desire to control it sometimes
leads to male hostility. Hostile attitudes from men, along with womens adherence to
social attitudes towards men as the family breadwinner, influence women to surrender
their earnings. However, although they may not exercise control over all their earnings,
they often do spend some money on their own. Women in Bangladesh, rural women in
particular, usually do not have access to cash resources. They engage in some purchases
as part of their day-to-day household management and the medium of transaction for
them is often rice, to which they have relatively easy access, because of their
participation in crop processing (White, 1992:81). Against this backdrop, womens
access to cash resources and spending money on their own indicates a change in
womens status in Bangladesh, which their mothers could not enjoy thirty years ago.

Notwithstanding womens participation in waged employment as part of their

household survival strategy, women continue to perform the majority of reproductive
tasks at familial level. Since domestic tasks are usually perceived by both men and
women as womens tasks, women are expected to perform these activities. Although

208
there have been some changes in relation to societal perceptions about gender roles and
relations and men tend to participate in some reproductive tasks alongside women,
women mostly bear the double burden of both reproductive work at household level and
productive work in factory premises. A significant impact of womens participation in
paid employment in Bangladesh is the changes that have taken place over the years in
societal perceptions about gender roles and relations and as such men now to an extent
believe that they should help women in domestic tasks. Their participation in
reproductive tasks, for instance, child care, is the evidence of peoples changed
perceptions of gender roles and relations in society. Contribution to family expenditure
has also improved womens position within the family to the degree that they can put
their views in family decisions or their views are sought when family decisions are
made.

Customarily women in Bangladesh, especially in rural areas, are married off at a

young age arranged by their families and until today child marriage is relatively
prevalent (Chowdhury, 2004:247). Female sexuality in Bangladesh is controlled
through early marriage, since sexual purity of women in the country, as in other Muslim
countries, is of the utmost importance for the reputation and honour of the family. Here,
male chastity is not questioned although, technically, in Islam male chastity is as
important as female chastity (Kandiyoti, 1987:326; Chowdhury, 2004:252). However,
garment factory work has a direct impact on womens reproductive health and marriage
arrangements. Since families require womens income, they cannot afford to marry
them off and until they are married they can contribute to their natal families. Once a
woman is married off, she becomes a member of her husbands family and her income
goes into the hands of her husband, which limits her ability to remit to her parents.
Families dependence on womens income and their participation in waged employment
has also positively affected women, since it delays their marriage, resulting in their
delayed childbearing and rearing. Furthermore, since childbearing and rearing
negatively affects womens factory work, they also tend to limit the number of children
in the family.

Export-oriented industrialisation approaches to development emancipated

Bangladeshi women from their traditional subordinate positions by integrating them
into the labour market. Waged work and economic resources provided them with the

209
necessary power base to acquire independence from traditional patriarchal control at
household level and to enjoy increasing autonomy. Factory work jeopardises mens
position of dominance over women at household level and at the same time subjects
them to new forms of subordination within the factory. Since participation in waged
employment decomposes patriarchal control at the household, female factory workers
can work long hours until night on the factory floor whilst strict factory rules
simultaneously recompose patriarchal oppression inside factories and compel them to
work late at night. Thus, they are emancipated but unliberated 21 from traditional
patriarchal domination. Womens staying outside the home and working until night, is
an instance of weakening familial patriarchy, which concurrently indicates the
emergence of new forms of male domination beyond the family. They are emancipated
from traditional familial patriarchy but subordinated to alien men on the factory floor
under patriarchal management. The subordination of women enables factories to
cheapen their labour and gain from it. Their families also dominate their earnings and
gain from their labour. Women themselves also gain autonomy and freedom of
movement to an extent at the cost of their own labour. Therefore, the implications of
paid employment for women working in export-oriented garment factories in
Bangladesh are contradictory and complex. It has some emancipatory aspects, which are
empowering for women to a certain degree, but it also intensifies their exploitive
situation in society in some ways. On the one hand, they work long hours for low wages
under despotic management and harsh working environments where they enjoy little or
no respect as workers but frequently experience patriarchal domination. They have little
control over their earnings and bear the burden of both their traditional reproductive
work in the family and productive tasks inside factories for earning an income for the
family. These all demonstrate their exploitation as factory workers and as women. On
the other hand, waged employment gives them the scope of mobility and economic
security and enables them to make some purchases for the family. It can lead to greater
participation in family decisions and an ability to utilise their agency to bargain and
negotiate with other people to an extent. Employment increases their awareness and
delays their marriage, child bearing and family size. All these are dimensions of their
empowerment within the societal context (Hashemi, Schuler & Riley, 1996:638).

21
I borrowed this expression to describe the position of female garment factory workers in Bangladesh
with regard to the emancipation/subordination debate from patriarchy from one of the articles of Deniz
Kandiyoti entitled Emancipated but Unliberated? Reflections on the Turkish Case (1987).

210
Conclusion

The government of Bangladesh, through its pursuit of economic development, has

created an avenue that has enabled women to avail the possibilities of global economic
restructuring in a society where spaces were segregated along gender lines. Societal
norms have traditionally restricted women to the domestic sphere and have imposed
sanctions upon their mobility. However, widespread poverty has pushed Bangladeshi
women to break the private/public dyad and female garment factory workers are active
agents whose increasing presence in public (male) spheres has affected popular
perceptions about gender roles and relations in society. Social values, beliefs and
practices construct gender ideologies and images which we reproduce and reinforce
through our constant interactions. Womens participation in the labour market and
presence in male dominated spaces are incessantly contesting the traditional notions of
gender practices and meanings and a new gender image has emanated, albeit one which
continues to be socially stigmatised. Women have developed their own strategy to cope
with their negative portrayal in the wider societal context. Imposing self control,
moving in groups, maintaining distance from men, constructing fictive kinship relations
and accepting new guardians are their approaches to negotiate with the relatively hostile
environment beyond their homestead. They try to behave and interact in a modest way
as part of their strategy to demonstrate that although they are transgressing male spaces
and working outside the home, they also are trying to maintain traditional values linked
to appropriate female behaviour.

Women are conscious that they are exploited in garment factories. They perform
tedious and repetitive jobs which are low paid and management frequently tries to
deprive them of financial and other related benefits. Nevertheless, bad jobs at bad
wages are better than no jobs at all (Krugman, 1997) and they are happy that they are
able to contribute to their family maintenance. Moreover, employment has enabled them
to enjoy freedom in their personal lives to an extent but simultaneously exposed them to
new forms of patriarchal domination on the factory floor. The day-to-day interactions
between women and men inside factories reproduce the notion of male domination and
female subordination which they have traditionally experienced within the household.
The work structure in garment factories is sexualised and despotic power relations are
maintained to discipline and control workers. Factory management reinforces and

211
exacerbates traditional sexual hierarchies, but significantly, these do not go uncontested.
At an individual level, some women try to resist and challenge patriarchal authority on
the factory floor and they may lead the way to new possibilities for other women who
might feel encouraged to challenge male domination, which possibly will construct a
new gender image, since challenging behaviour is the driver of change.

Women in Bangladesh are playing an important role in the processes of social and
economic transformation of the country. Their visible presence in the labour market is
gradually creating their own space in the conventional public sphere. Bangladeshi
society is in a transitional stage and a slow but steady process of change is taking place
in the systems of beliefs and values of people in the country. They are growing
accustomed to seeing women going out and working with other women and men
beyond the homestead. Their participation in waged employment has threatened mens
domination at the household level. It is likely that over the years it will also destabilise
patriarchal control on the factory floors and will lead management to follow more
acceptable and equitable labour practices inside factories. It will hopefully lead to a
more favourable workplace where women will be able to work with dignity. Moreover,
I believe that societal perceptions about gender roles and relations will also change and
women will be visible in managerial posts in coming years. We can expect that the
transitional period will lead to a gender emancipating discourse that will shift the norms
of the society and sanctions will be imposed on harassment and the harassers rather than
women. As factory workers, I think it is possible that one day they will enjoy equal
dignity with men in society. Bangladeshi women constitute the main workforce of
export-led industrialisation, seen as docile and who are working for minimum wages,
and thus they are contributing to maintain the competitiveness of the labour market of
the country in the global market place. The country requires increasing foreign
investment to enhance export-oriented industrialisation which is perceived to be the
appropriate strategy of economic development. I believe and we can expect that at the
end of the transitional period, a congenial environment will emerge when society will
be more concerned with women and their status and which will enhance womens
greater role in development.

212
Policy recommendations

The garment sector is the single largest sector of Bangladesh in terms of foreign
exchange earnings. Furthermore, the export-oriented garment industry in Bangladesh is the only
major organized manufacturing sector which accounts for a large part of especially female
employment. The advent of garment factories has brought about significant changes in many
spheres, such as employment, access to cash resources, control over income and decision
making etc. However, womens garment factory employment has widened the gender gap in
some areas like work-load, health, social security etc. and the implications of employment on
them are complex and contradictory. For example, because of factory employment women
enjoy relative autonomy from familial patriarchal dominance but are subordinated to non-
familial control through men on the factory floor under patriarchal management. They
experience occupational segregation and gender discrimination in wage rates. Moreover, factory
management hardly follows the rules and regulations with regard to labour welfare and tries to
exploit women in different ways. Evidence suggests that women are employed in export-
oriented garment factories to take advantage of their comparative disadvantage position in the
labour market. Nevertheless, inward investment and workplace exploitation need not go hand in
hand. Considering all these issues, I would like to make the following policy recommendations
which should be undertaken with a view to minimising the adverse gender differentiated effects
arising from womens employment in export-oriented garment factories in Bangladesh.

a. The government of Bangladesh has formulated the Labour Law 2006 which
provides one day weekly holiday, full pay for fourteen days medical/sick
leave, eleven days festival leave and maternity leave for sixteen weeks.
However, factory workers do not benefit to a great extent from these legal
provisions because of employers reluctance in implementing labour laws.
Government should take necessary measures to strengthen the law
enforcement machinery and emphasis should be placed on random factory
visits by labour law enforcement agency representatives. Factory management
may be asked to report on compliance with prescribed labour laws.
Punishment may be imposed on the employers not complying with labour
laws and standards while best employers may be identified and rewarded for
ensuring best working conditions.

b. Government may undertake a promotional approach such as introducing

educational programmes within the working environment at times to suit

213
 employers with a view to building and increasing awareness of both
employers and employees about labour laws. Such programmes should be
undertaken to educate both employers and factory workers on their obligations
and rights in relation to labour law. Educational programmes can motivate
employers to comply with legal provisions with regard to labour rights while
laws cannot be easily enforced if there is no demand for the same.

c. In the absence of appropriate labour organizations garment factory workers

cannot prevent infringements of their rights. Factory management gives very
little attention to any demand of female factory workers since as an individual
their bargaining power is very weak. As such, with a view to improving
working conditions factory workers must develop their collective bargaining
ability and necessary steps should be taken so that they can organize them into
trade unions. Furthermore, awareness needs to be created about the role of
trade unions.

d. Health and safety issues are neglected in garment factories and lack of
appropriate health and safety measures are highly responsible for ill health of
the workers. Moreover, time constraints and absence of leave facilities limit
their access to medical facilities. Steps should be taken to improve the
implementation of labour laws regarding occupational safety to ensure health
security of factory workers. Moreover, the government can establish health
centres with suitable opening times at those locations where garment factories
are clustered. Such steps would help workers avail health facilities without
spending much time.

e. Long working hours is one of the dominant factors affecting the health status
of garment factory workers, curtailing their leisure and sleeping time.
Therefore, a policy recommendation follows that a two-shift working system
should be introduced in garment factories. Introduction of a double shift of
work would raise workers productivity. Furthermore, long working hours is
an obstacle for efficient operators to take promotion to supervisory posts since
they cannot manage both home and factory work effectively. A two-shift
working system could help women gain promotion to supervisory posts.

214
f. Education is the single most important factor in segregating garment factory
work along gender lines. Therefore, raising female workers educational level
is the most effective way to eliminating gender imbalances in factory
production. The first step in this regard should be to attract more educated
women into garment factories. Government may sanction a quota for women
in management position in factories.

g. Higher category jobs in garment factories require the skill of garment

manufacturing which an employee can acquire only through on-the-job
training. Since there are no provisions for training facilities outside of the
firms, one has to start ones career as a helper, the lowest job in garment
factories. Absence of any formal training facility and lack of required skills
are discouraging for educated women to have a career in export-oriented
factories. Therefore, providing appropriate training facilities will be an
effective way to attract educated women in garment factories.

h. There is a negative portrayal of female factory workers in Bangladeshi society

which is also discouraging for educated women to undertake garment factory
work as a career. Steps should be taken to change peoples perceptions of
female factory workers. Their contribution to national economy should also be
highlighted. Both print and electronic media can be utilised effectively in this
regard, for example, to portray positive messages and images of female
factory workers and highlight their contributions to the family and national
economy.

i. Women need to be trained to be suitably skilled for supervisory positions

which are presently male-dominated. Steps should be taken to change
traditional societal perceptions of womens images and women should be
encouraged to take managerial positions.

j. Although garment factory management tend to provide some child care

facilities within the factory compound, they are reluctant to allow female
factory workers to visit their children in the day-care centre. As such, women
with young children feel discouraged to avail child care facilities. This

215
 situation affects their work standard on the factory floor since there is a social
risk in leaving them, especially female children, back home. Therefore,
management has to allow women to visit their children in the day-care centre
and encourage them to avail such facilities within the factory compound.
Government also has to undertake an information campaign to make
employers aware in this regard.

k. There is an insecurity of overtime payment in garment factories. Enactment of

legislation stating the payment date of overtime allowances can help improve
this situation. Furthermore, workers should be given a copy of their time-card
mentioning their total working hours.

l. Importers of garments made in Bangladesh may also inquire about the

implementation of labour law as prescribed by the government of the country.

216
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